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TREMCNT TEMPLE. 



Published bvLEE & SHEPARD, Huston 



MEMOIR 



TIMOTHY GILBERT. 



BY 



JUSTIN D. FULTON. 



"THE GRANDEST ABOLITIONIST IN BOSTON." 

A Slave-hunter's Tribute. 



BOSTON : 
LEE AND SHEPARD. 

1S66. 



i THE LIBRARY 
OF CONORBM 

WASHINGTON 



5- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 

JUSTIN D. FULTON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



^ 3 2 r~J 




TERBOTTPED AT TIIK 

8TEEEOTTPE FOUNDRY, 

No. 4 Spring Lane. 



by John Wilson and Son. 



TO THE 

CHURCH AND CONGREGATION 

WORSHIPPING IN TREMONT TEMPLE, 

This Volume 
is 

RESPECTFULLY, GRATEFULLY, AND AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED, 

BY THEIR PASTOR. 



PREFACE. 



The life of Timothy Gilbert, for half a cen- 
tury conspicuously identified with anti-slavery move- 
ments in the church and in the world, furnishes 
abundant testimony that the disciples of Christ have 
led the way in producing and carrying forward that 
great moral revolution which has disinthralled a con- 
tinent. Redeemed bondmen will find in this life facts 
and incidents of permanent value, because it is to the 
courage and fidelity of such men, who leaped straight 
into the heart of the conflict, whose steel rang true 
upon the flint of the rebellion, and brought out the 
fire which melted their chains, that they are indebted 
for all that distinguishes the present from the past, 
and makes America, for the first time, " the home 
of the brave, and the land of the free," instead of 
the land of the free, and the home of the slave. 

The relation sustained by the subject of this Me- 
moir to the revivals that have characterized the pres- 
ent century, which, culminating in Boston, can be 
best studied from his stand-point, will invite the 

(5) 



6 PREFACE. 

Christian and the student to drink from this fresh 
fountain of inspiration and hope. 

The work performed by Deacon Gilbert in build- 
ing Tremont Temple, and in making it an attractive 
sanctuary where the masses may, from week to week, 
listen to the gospel of Christ, should give the story of 
such a life a welcome wherever an interest is felt in 
the establishment of a " Stranger's Sabbath Home," 
in the centre of a great city. That life will be found 
full of incentive to self-sacrifice and noble deeds. 
The subject of it lived and wrought for God, and his 
works do praise him. 

The author would express his gratitude to G. W. 
Chipman, J. W. Converse, and Cyrus Carpenter, Esqs., 
who, from the first, have manifested the heartiest 
sympathy for the work to which Deacon Gilbert con- 
secrated his life. Mr. Chipman supplied the excellent 
likeness of his life-long friend, Mr. Converse furnished 
the faithful picture of Tremont Temple, — Deacon 
Gilbert's fittest monument, — and Mr. Carpenter has, 
from the first, rendered valuable aid in securing the 
publication of this Memoir. 

The author has been to the book what the scaf- 
folding is to the building. He cheerfully steps aside, 
now that his work is done, that the reader may see 
the man. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 



Page 



Introduction. 



CHAPTER II. 
His Birth, Childhood, and Youth. — Conversion 15 

CHAPTER III. 
His Manner of Life 20 



CHAPTER IV. 

His Marriage. — The Tremont Temple Enterprise. -— Nathaniel 
Colver 49 



CHAPTER V. 

Rev. Jacob Knapp. — The Baptist Cause in Boston in 1840. — The 
Character of the Evangelist, and his Work in New Bedford, 
Providence, and Boston. — Letter from Mr. Knapp, showing the 
Part borne in the Work by Mr. Gilbert 67 

CHAPTER VI. 

Anti-Slavery Agitation in the Church. — The Proceedings of the 
Mission Board at Baltimore. — Exciting Discussion. — Letter 
of Baron Stow. — Organization of the Provisional Committee. — 

Mr. Gilbert Treasurer 87 

(7) 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Gilbert's Letter-Book. — Reflections concerning the Duty of 
Christian Men and Churches to the Slave absorb his Thoughts, 
and flame out from his Correspondence. — The Provisional 
Committee at Work. — Correspondence with Missionaries and 
others. — Drs. Fuller and Wayland on Slavery. — Dr. Hague's 
Review 112 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Dedication of Tremont Temple. — The Death of Mrs. Gilbert. — 
Second Marriage of Mr. Gilbert. — Trip to Europe, — Conse- 
cration of his Property to the Cause of Christ. — Resignation 
of the Presidency of the Boylston Bank 157 

CHAPTER IX. 

Causes which led to the Resignation of Rev. N. Colver. — Mr. 
Gilbert's Character in a new Light. — Defects of Extempora- 
neous Preaching. — His Views concerning Salary, and Study, 
and Visiting 176 

CHAPTER X. 

Resignation of Rev. Nathaniel Colver. —Tremont Temple burnt. 

— A Description of the New Temple. — Deacon Gilbert's View 

of the Enterprise 186 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Tremont Temple Enterprise imperilled. — The Property 
offered for Sale. — The Organization of the Evangelical Bap- 
tist Benevolent and Missionary Society. *— The Sky clearing. 

— Mr. Gilbert's Hopes brightening. — Letter of Rev. D. C. 
Eddy, D. D " 207 

CHAPTER XII. 
Personal Recollections 219 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Mr. Gilbert's Death. — Notices of the Deceased. — His Funeral. 245 



MEMOIR 

OF 

TIMOTHY GILBERT. 



CHAPTER I, 

INTRODUCTION. 



The story is told of Oliver Cromwell, that once 
upon a time, while sitting for his picture, the artist 
tried to conceal a scar upon his brow. The hero, 
noticing it, chided the painter, saying, "Paint me as 
I am" The artist complied with the request, but so 
managed it that he placed Cromwell in a meditative 
position, sitting with his head resting upon his hand, 
and his forefinger concealing the scar. We shall let 
Timothy Gilbert sit upright. Not believing in perfect 
characters, nor in model lives, but rather in one per- 
fect character, and in one model life, which closed its 
testimony on earth with the "It is finished" of Cal- 
vary, we shall try and present the subject of this 
Memoir as he lived at home, worked in the shop, 
toiled in the church, and battled for his faith in man 
and his faith in God in the midst of an opposing 

I * (9) 



IO MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

world and a sleeping- chinch. His life deserves to be 
written, because it refutes the infidel utterance that 
there is something incompatible with a faith in Christ 
and a devotion to the highest interests of humanity. 
Horace Mann, Theodore Parker, and others like 
them, never tired of declaring that to help humanity 
men must break loose from creeds. Here is a man 
that clung to his faith in Christ, in the Bible, in the 
rule of faith and practice adopted by his denomina- 
tion in Jerusalem, where Peter preached and John was 
bishop, and which has characterized them through all 
the intervening centuries, and now distinguishes them 
in all lands and climes, and yet he won from a slave- 
hunter the title of being the Grandest Abolitionist in 
Bosto?i. 

His identification with the great revivals of 1841, 
and with efforts calculated to secure the salvation of 
souls, links his name to the religious history of Boston. 
His efforts in behalf of the apprentices and mechanics 
deprived of a place of worship, and his watchfulness, 
that enabled him to seize the golden opportunity, 
when, because of the wonderful work of grace going 
on in Boston during the winter of 1841-2, the lessees 
of Tremont Theatre lost some ten thousand dollars, 
compelling the holders of the property to throw it upon 
the market, he purchased it, and by the aid of others, 
converted it into a free place of public worship, in 
which all the seats on the Sabbath are kept free to 
every person, without distinction, entitle him to the 
homage paid to public virtue and private worth. 

On the first Sabbath of July, 1865, while the Union 
Temple Church were celebrating the Lord's Supper, 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

Deacon Timothy Gilbert, being absent for the first 
time, selected from Philippians, second chapter, from 
the fourteenth to the sixteenth verses inclusive, this 
message, which he asked his pastor to carry to them 
as a humble expression of his desire concerning 
them : " Do all without murmurings and disputings, 
that ye may be blameless and simple, children of 
God, unreproachable in the midst of a crooked and 
perverse generation, among whom ye shine as do the 
heavenly lights in the world, holding forth the word 
of life for a ground of glorying to me at the day of 
Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain." 

The exhortation, " Do all without murmurings and 
disputings," expressed in words the principle that ruled 
his life. Little did" I know of the trials that bent his 
frame and that ploughed deep furrows in his heart. 
He was a silent sufferer. To the scenes through 
which he had passed, and the labors he had performed, 
he seldom made reference. Now that he has gone, and 
that I have turned over the pages of his memoranda, 
I see that his desire to be simple, unreproachable in 
the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and 
to shine as do the heavenly lights in the world, his 
anxiety to hold forth the word of life as a ground of 
glorying, rather than to talk of what he had purposed 
and achieved, made him the quiet and unpretentious 
man, who lived and wrought for God, and passed on 
to his reward. 

A Christian's life is worthy of prayerful consider- 
ation and of profound study. It is a volume, the 
pages of whose imperishable record bear inscriptions 
wrought by the finger of God. It opens into the 



I J Ml.MOlK OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

hidden mysteries of the world's great life. In it we 

behold the motive power that influenced, shaped, and 
controlled society. It opens into a home, and reveals 
to us God's model idea of a father, of a husband or 
friend. In it we see the thread of an almighty pur- 
pose entering the woof of events, and giving coloring 
and character to the distinguishing features of an 
epoch. It opens into a church, Christ's great work- 
shop : it leads you into the prayer circle, to the sanc- 
tuary among the poor and among the influential, and 
becomes a finite cog fitting into the wheel of an 
infinite plan, and touching the machinery of society, 
which was set in motion for the glory of God and the. 
good of man. Flowing into political circles, it resem- 
bles a clear mountain stream, cleansing and purifying 
all with which it comes in contact. It never can be 
thoroughly comprehended or understood. It is the 
incarnation of God's purpose among men. The opin- 
ions uttered, and the efforts made, help to establish 
justice, and to construct the healthy organisms of an 
age. It resembles a productive mine. There is little 
seen upon the surface ; but when you reach the sphere 
of his labor, you become amazed at the extent of the 
area blessed by his love and cultured by his care. 

If we enter the home of Timothy Gilbert, and be- 
hold him presiding over his table, giving a hospitable 
welcome to strangers, making ministers and mission- 
aries, bondmen and freemen, feel that his house was 
Christ's house, and that he was acting as the steward 
of his Master; into the church, and behold him ever 
ready to bear his burden, and ever yielding to the 
yoke, but never forward, never ostentatious; into the 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

political world, and see how modestly and firmly he 
bore himself, — we shall see that it was never his pur- 
pose to occupy a conspicuous position in the eye of 
men, yet that it was his grand aim to hold an honora- 
ble, though a humble place, in the eye of God. 

He had no aspirations for office. When the Liberty 
Party was weak, he accepted nominations ; when it 
became strong, he rejected proffers and posts of honor. 
He had no desire to be considered a leader even in 
commercial circles. He desired " to do justly, to love 
mercy, and to walk humbly with his God ; " "to shine 
as do the heavenly lights in the world." 

That made him what he was as a mechanic, as an 
employer, as a manufacturer, as an abolitionist, as a 
politician, as a deacon. That made him consecrate 
his time, talents, and property to the furtherance of 
the various interests committed to his care. That 
made him the champion of the oppressed, the friend 
of the poor, and the benefactor of the young. Write 
up such a life, and you embody in enduring shape a 
record which becomes the distinguishing feature of an 
epoch. 

It may truly be said of him that he comprehended 
the era in which he lived. He had a logical mind, 
and could follow premises to their legitimate results. 
Hence he was never behind, but generally in advance 
of, his age. 

He foresaw the result of the anti-slavery contest, 
and predicted it, and acted up to his convictions. 
When General Ulysses S.- Grant permitted General 
Robert E. Lee to surrender the forces of the Confed- 
eracy in a manner that relieved him, and the soldiers 



1 4 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

he led, from the humiliation of a general, open, and 
formal laying down of the arms of rebellion, he fore- 

trouble, and at once declared, "Those men will not 
believe they are conquered." When the air was full 

ie paeans of victory, his eye detected the dangers 
which followed in the wake of northern instead of 
southern conciliation. Not fully believing in the 
president concerning reconstruction, and wholly disa- 

ing with him in regard to negro suffrage, he pre- 
pared with great care a statement of the case as he 
viewed it. and sent it to the president, feeling that 
in this way alone could he discharge his duty. His 
rule being, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might," he never postponed until to-morrow 
what should be done to-day, and as a result, achieved 
Titanic tasks, and accomplished important results. 
Desiring to be, not a leader, but a motive power and 
a propelling force, he worked through others, and de- 
lighted to hold up the hands of those who, battled for 
the truth, and while glorying in results, shunned 
fame. 



i5 



CHAPTER II. 

HIS BIRTH, CHILDHOOD, AND YOUTH — CONVERSION. 

Timothy Gilbert was born in Enfield, Mass., 
January 5, 1797. His father, Timothy Gilbert, was 
born in Hardwick, Mass., March 14, 1772. Fear 
Shaw, his mother, was born at Middleboro', Mass., 
July 3, 1768; and they were married in Greenwich, 
now Enfield, September 22, 1794. 

The father died at Enfield, May 24, 1838, and was 
buried in the rear of the meeting-house ; and his good 
wife Fear died January 14, 1858, and was buried by 
his side. 

Timothy was the eldest son and second child of a 
family of seven children, consisting of four sons and 
three daughters. His parents, though but little known 
to the world, were esteemed and respected by their 
neighbors. His father was a farmer in moderate cir- 
cumstances, and in this employment Timothy was 
engaged until the year 181 8, when he came to Boston 
at the age of twenty-one. He early manifested a taste 
for mechanism. There was music in the whir of the 
factory wheels driven by the River " Swift," which is 
formed by the junction of two turbulent streams, 
which in their union are a source of wealth, and 
present an additional attraction to the varied beauties 
of the town. 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Eiracter, when a boy. was so sedate, and 
his hear; ave, that he won the appellation of 

.. hile vet in his teens. . He was fond of books, 
than many of his age. In 
temperament he resembled his mother. It has been 
frequently remarked that man is what woman makes 
him, her influence, primarily upon his infancy, and 
wards upon his maturity, being so far superior to 
i -ther. that he takes his moral shape directly or 
indirectly from her. When women are gentle, pure, 
and intelligent, their children grow up honest, brave, 
and thoughtful ; when they are passionate, unchaste, 
and frivolous, the men whom they rear are lawless, 
animal, and superficial. The course, too, of the gen- 
erations, in either case, is to grow noble and more 
courageous, or to fall away towards barbarism. In a 
word, one tends to spiritual refinement, the other to 
sensual debasement. This being true, the chaste, vir- 
tuous, pure, brave, and thoughtful character of the son 
Ly attributable to her, whose influence over 
him was ever recognized as a blessed boon from God. 
His Liters to his mother breathe a spirit of filial devo- 
that speaks volumes in praise of the heart of her 
He watched her health, ministered to her hap- 
piness, and never was more happy than when he had 
her with him in his own house. The portraits of his 
parents hung on his parlor walls. He honored them, 
obtained the promised blessing. 
turally impulsive, and very correct in all he did, 
it troubled him when those connected with him were 
careless in their habits, or irregular in their lives. 
When his mind became interested in the subject of 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH CONVERSION. I 7 

religion, he was a long time struggling with the cor- 
ruptions of his own heart. His will was perverse and 
terribly unyielding. At last grace triumphed, and he 
became a little child at the feet of Jesus. No sooner 
did he obtain the liberty of the gospel than he had 
great peace and great love for the souls of others. 

When converted he was surrounded by Congrega- 
tionalists. The study of the New Testament made a 
Baptist of him. That was enough. Opposition was 
wasted on him. A Thus saith the Lord was better 
than a Thus saith a creed or a minister. There was 
no Baptist church nearer than three and a half miles, 
in Belchertown. That church became his home. On 
January 5, 181 7, he was baptized by Rev. David 
Pease, in the river covered with drift ice, while around 
him gathered the church, singing, — ' 

"Christians, if your hearts are warm, 
Ice and snow will do no harm ; " 

after which he walked more than half a mile with- 
out a change of garments, and without inconvenience. 
On the last day of December, 1818, he came to 
Boston, and went to work, as an apprentice cabinet- 
maker, with Levi Ruggles, and after various changes, 
learned the piano-forte business of Mr. John Osborn, 
and in time formed a partnership with Mr. E. R. 
Currier. At the dissolution of the partnership, he 
became the head of the concern, and maintained the 
position, through many vicissitudes of fortune, up to 
the time of his death. 

Boston, when he entered it a stranger, had but 
forty thousand inhabitants. There were three Baptist 



iS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

churches. Rev. James M. Winchell was pastor of 
the First. Rev. Thomas Baldwin of the Second, and 
Rev. Daniel Sharp of the Third. 

Uniting with the last-named church, he carried into 
the Sabbath school and prayer meeting the idiosyn- 
crasies that characterized him through life. 

The influence of Dr. Sharp upon him was of a 
marked character. It was a primitive period in 
American history. The missionary enterprise had 
taken possession of the minds of Christians. The 
storv of Carev's success, of Judson's conversion, the 
need of cooperation on the part of the American 
church, the formation of the Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society, of the Northern Baptist Educa- 
tion Society, the establishment of colleges and churches, 
were facts which filled the mind and engaged the 
thought of that polished and courtly preacher, who 
delighted in the pulpit to dwell upon the Christian 
graces, and whose outward life was characterized by 
unsullied purity and a sublime devotion to every good 
work. Nathaniel Ripley Cobb, the Christian mer- 
chant, was a member of the church when he joined it. 
Cobb was a year his senior in birth and in baptism, 
lie was born near Portland, Me., November 3, 1798, 
was baptized in May, 1818, and died May 22, 1834, 
when but thirty-six years of age, after having won a 
noble position in Boston. 

On September 30, 1843, O. S. Fowler, the celebrated 
phrenologist, gave this description of Mr. Gilbert's char- 
acter : ; ' lie is noted for goodness and desire for bene- 
fiting mankind. He would do it by making them good 
first, and by that means making them happy. The 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH CONVERSION. 1 9 

object of his life is to make men happy, and not one 
man in a thousand has a larger organ of benevolence. 
He is a stanch, stable man, that is a pillar in society 
— one to be depended upon. He pursues his uniform 
course with dignity, respects himself, and is respected. 
He has more thoughts and ideas than words to express 
them. Is fond of the beautiful. Is good at planning 
and setting others to work. Would be a deacon in a 
church and a director in a bank, and has great tact 
in contriving ways and means for accomplishing his 
objects. Is plain, but hospitable, and would be likely 
to have many visitors, and an extensive circle of 
friends. Gives advice, and good advice ; is pleased 
with the approbation of friends ; is strictly honest ; 
dislikes to be in debt. I think he could hardly help 
being an abolitionist and a leader in reforms, Sabbath 
schools, and wherever he can do the most good. Will 
believe nothing without proof; must see the reason, 
the law, involved. Would have made a good clergy- 
man. He stands by the right. Would speak the 
truth at the cannon's mouth. Conscientiousness is 
one of his principal organs." Those who knew him 
can recognize the correctness of the portraiture. He 
was as fearless and honest as he was brave. 



20 



CHAPTER III. 

HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 

Happy New Year greeted the ear of Timothy Gil- 
bert, on January i, 1819, the morning after his arrival 
in Boston. 

He was a stranger. He loved his home, he idolized 
his mother, and he felt that sensation of loneliness 
which comes to the heart when the anchor is lifted 
and the sails are spread, and the boat in which our 
hopes are embarked pushes out upon the unexplored 
sea of the future, and the light of home no longer 
greets the view. He was poor, but brave. No young 
man ever began life under more straitened circum- 
stances ; none ever grasped the difficulties of the situa- 
tion with a braver purpose. We find him early seek- 
ing employment. How he attempted and failed, tried 
again and succeeded, is remembered by his friends, 
lie entered the shop of Levi Ruggles to learn the 
cabinet business. He has good strong hands, an eye 
to the main chance and single to the glory of God, an 
honest heart, and good health. In learning his trade 
lie is animated by a purpose that takes in a wide and 
an ambitious range. He* is an apprentice. He ex- 
pects to be an employer ; hence he studies principles 
as well as the cunning of handcraft. He dives into 
the secrets of success, into the questions of profit and 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 21 

loss. Having mastered the cabinet business, he turns 
to the piano trade, and strikes the thread of his destiny, 
which, followed, leads to fortune and fame. His heart 
is full of musical emotions and sweet harmonies, and 
his ear is attuned to melody. Here, in like manner, he 
studies all parts of the business, and is never content 
while anything remains to be learned. He is not a 
busybody. He is not meddlesome. He talks little, 
and thinks a great deal. He tries to increase in 
knowledge more and more, and so studies to be quiet, 
and to do his own business, and to work with his own 
hands, as the apostle commands, that he may walk 
honestly toward them who are without, and that he 
may lack nothing. The Bible is the rule of his faith 
and practice. In the church he has a place, and he is 
ever in it. In the Sabbath school he feels that he has 
duties to discharge, and he meets his trusts in a manly 
way. His seat in the sanctuary is always filled. His 
pastor comes to know him, and to lean upon him. 
Happy pastor, surrounded by men like Cobb, Gilbert, 
Farwell, and a host of others ! — men of brain, of 
heart, and piety. 

Naturally enough and without pushing, E. R. Cur- 
rier wants a partner. He does not need money so 
much as he needs a man. He has heard of that quiet, 
thrifty mechanic. He seeks him out, or is sought out, 
and a partnership is formed, and young Gilbert, who 
on the ist of January, 1819, came to Boston a stranger, 
is now a partner in business, and has use for all he has 
acquired, and a sphere in which he may use his in- 
ventive faculty to his satisfaction. In less than five 
years he marries a wife, secures a home, erects a 



HEMOIB OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Family altar, and becomes tlie centre of an influence, 
which, like the ripple formed by the falling pebble, 
shall widen in its circumference until it writes its 

►rd on distant shores. 
Settled in business, he was brought into contact 
with new circles of society and fresh currents of in- 
fluence. He took positions. He brought all ques- 

s to the light of revealed truth, and judged them 
by the standards furnished by God himself. This 
made him set in opinion. It was a characteristic of 
his, when, after long reflection and prayer, he reached 
a conclusion he believed it to be the mind of God. It 
was this conviction that made him determined, and at 
times overbearing. Instances abound when it was 
clear he was mistaken in judgment. He was fallible, 
like others, and often, perhaps, mistook inclination for 
duty, and desire for conviction. He was not tolerant, 
nor patient, nor pliable. It is related by an individual 
who was then a youth, and is now a man of promi- 
nence, that he was sought out by Mr. Gilbert, and in- 
vited to obtain an education at his expense. He began 
his course, and was accomplishing the work, when, in 
consequence of his not being up to his benefactor in 
anti-slavery convictions, he was told of the disappoint- 
ment his conduct had produced, and informed that, in 
accordance with a resolution to give money to such 
purposes and in such channels that it should tell upon 
the interests of the bondmen, he should be compelled 
v, forego in part the amount allowed him. The proud- 

ited youth resented the indignity, gave up his 
course and the ministry. In this Mr. Gilbert made a 
mistake. lie saw it afterwards, and regretted it. Yet 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 23 

this characteristic was a blessing instead of a bane. 
He loved the truth, and delighted to follow its guid- 
ance. He erred in judgment at times, because he was 
a man. Truth pleased and charmed him. It begot 
principles within his nature, and those principles ruled 
him. Like trees planted in the earth, they absorbed 
the nutriment which came in their way. They grew. 
Hence, to influence him, truth must range itself behind 
these well-established principles. He knew that he 
could not do everything. He knew that he could 
accomplish some one thing. To this he bent his 
energies. 

This made him take certain advanced positions. In 
looking about him, he saw that the churches were 
asleep in regard to the woes inflicted upon the race 
by slavery and intemperance. Believing that " Im- 
manuel " — God with us — is with us to save us, he 
grasped the truth that " God is with us to save us by 
being God for us and God in us." On the one hand, 
God for us by taking the place of the sinner ; and on 
the other hand, God in us by uniting himself to the 
sinner. The power of the gospel consists in this : that 
it not only reveals God's work for us when he took 
our place in the person of his Son, bore our punish- 
ment upon the cross, so that we might go free, but also 
God's work in us when he unites himself to us in the 
person of his Spirit, to renew and purify our hearts by 
the communication of his own love and righteousness. 
God for us ! That convinces us of our sin ; that takes 
away our fear. God in us ! That assures us that 
the w^ork once begun will be completed by the feeding 
of our inward life from his own divine fountains. 






>IR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 



-. and not the force of an unconquerable will, made 
him E aliant, and invincible in his determina- 

1 forward the cause of Christ as the hope of 
God was in him, he was in God. 

This made him thoughtful and suggestive. It was 
a pl< ! r him to live in sympathy with public 

men. Hi stions were not whims born in a mo- 

ment, and to be swept aside by a breath. When he 
mentioned a subject and proposed a line of policy, it 
the result of diligent and wise thinking. If his" 
view made little or no impression when first mentioned. 
he would bide his time ; but the sun was no more 
sure to rise than he was to bring the idea up in another 
shape : and even if it should be scouted and ignored. 
believing in it himself, he would consecrate himself to 
its furtherance and diffusion. This made him persist- 
ent and unyielding at times to an unpleasant degree. 
but it pushed him on in his beaten path, and made him 
the pioneer of important movements and reforms. 
Hi* manner of life as an employer and business man 
characterized by idiosyncrasies peculiarly his own. 
lie was kind, but exacting. He had ways of his own 
in transacting business, and disliked to be jostled by 
the ways of the world. He would have lived more 
pleasantly in London than in Boston, in England than 
in America. He depended for success not upon tin- 
and show, but upon substance and merit. His 
piano- were well made, and, as was frequently stated, 
trength of tone, finish, and durable manu- 
factui are unsurpassed." He was especially 

of fan lily music, and accordinglv took sincere 
in introducing th lian Attachment," 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 25 

combining the power of the organ with the sweetness 
of the piano. The yEolian Attachment, invented by 
Coleman, is a wind instrument of the softest and most 
delicate tones, and is so united to the piano-forte that 
the same key-board controls both instruments, so that 
either one of the two instruments may be used, or both 
together, blending in delightful and undistinguishable 
harmony. Of this instrument Mr. Gilbert was very 
fond ; and indeed it is difficult to conceive of an instru- 
ment better adapted to accompany and assist the hu- 
man voice, or to express the deepest emotions and sweet- 
est experiences of the human heart. At the family 
altar the hymn books were passed around, and all sang. 
In singing he worshipped, as well as in reading and 
prayer. In selling instruments he would never dis- 
guise a fault or press a virtue. His pianos were great 
favorites in the South. They were easily kept in tune, 
and their music was soft and pleasant to the ear. He 
was known in his business to be an abolitionist, and 
would never compromise principle to secure favor. A 
North Carolinian, having purchased and paid for a pia- 
no, turned upon him, and said, " Mr. Gilbert, you are 
an abolitionist." " I am." " That money is the product 
of slavery." " Well," said the fearless soul, " I guess 
it won't help slavery while in my possession." " But 
are you not principled against receiving it?" " No ;. I 
hate slaveiy, not the money." " That is honest," said 
the tall Carolinian, and shaking hands, went his way, 
impressed by the bearing of the fearless deacon. His 
manner of life as a politician is known to but few. 
He had no aspirations for office. But he loved work, 
and was glad of influence. 
2 



MBMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Early in life he came to believe in human freedom. 
It resulted from his faith in Christ, the Saviour of man- 
kind. The tie that bound him to God, linked him to 
the race. He regarded the cross of Christ as the 
standard of hope, and the gospel of Christ, preached 
and practised, as the power of God unto the salvation 
of men. The roar of that terrible tempest which came 
near levelling the superstructures of hope had been but 
faintly heard, when Timothy Gilbert, in the prime and 
Bush of a young and vigorous manhood, consecrated 
himself to the cause of the down-trodden slave. Hav- 
ing made up his mind that slavery was the " sum of 
all villanies," that it was the violation of God's law 
written in Bibles and in the constitution of human 
nature, that the oppressed needed help to break the 
oppressors' yoke, he resolved to lend a helping hand. 

The idea took deep root in his nature. It did not 
ruin him, as it ruined thousands. It did not make an 
infidel of him, and cause him to revile the church and 
revile the ministry. He did not deny the divinity of 
Christ, because he contended for the humanity of the 
negro. lie followed Christ, and worked for man. 
He accepted the truth, and gave it liberty to influence 
his life. It did influence that life. At times it ruled 
him, and made him a terror to evil doers, and a praise 
to them who do well. Checked and held back by 
timid and conservative friends, it swelled within him 
like a mountain torrent. But he gave bounds to the 
throbbing emotion, and mastered the indignation that 
burned like a lire within, and walked firmly if quietly, 
sternly if peacefully. 

Review a few facts. Believing that the negro should 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 2>] 

be treated as a man, he invited one to take a seat 
beside him in his pew. It created talk. It made him 
odious. The pastor did not approve it, brethren did 
not like it. He persisted in two things. First, in his 
right to treat the negro as a man and a friend. 
Second, in his right to his own seat in the house of 
God. The excitement produced an unlooked-for 
result. It made him feel the importance of a free- 
seated house of worship. The seedling was planted. 

In the course of time he joined the Federal Street 
church, having been assured that there would be no 
objections to his taking into his seat any whom he 
might desire. It may perhaps be stated as a fact, that 
had it not been for this discussion, and for his subse- 
quent experience in obtaining seats for the young 
mechanics about him, the purpose to build Tremont 
Temple had never been formed. 

He came to Boston in 1 819. It was a wonderful 
year. Then began the anti-slavery agitation in Con- 
gress. It will be remembered that previous to the 
year 1819, the admissions to the Union had been of a 
slaveholding and non-slaveholding state alternately. 
As Alabama was to come in as a slave state, it was 
claimed that Missouri should come in as a non-slave 
state. 

The slaveholders resisted, and claimed that the pro- 
vision of the treaty ceding Louisiana territory to the 
Union carried with it the right to hold colored men 
as property. 

State sovereignty lifted its hydra heads, and con- 
tended that Congress could not interfere with slave- 
holding without infringing state rights. The restric- 



j\ MKMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

tionists refused to admit that to hold slaves was any 
right oi the citizens of the United States. They went 
on to argue that as slavery was an enormous evil, 
totally contrary to the principles of the American 
rnment, for Congress to admit it, when it had the 
power of exclusion, would be at once a gross derelic- 
tion of principles, and a sacrifice of the interests of 
labor and laboring men to those of the comparatively 
small and much less meritorious class of slaveholders. 

It is not difficult to imagine the effect of words like 
these upon the heart and mind of the young mechanic. 
lli— soul .was stirred. He grasped the central truth, 
and clung to it for more than forty years, through evil 
as well as through good report. 

The history of the rise and progress of abolition in 
the United States waits to be written. The principles 
that underlie the movement are as old as God, and 
run parallel with the progress of the race. Wherever 
the gospel has exerted its influence, slavery has been 
felt to be a sin. In our revolutionary struggle, the 
claims of human nature were asserted. General 
Gates, the hero of Saratoga, emancipated his slaves 
in 1780. In the papers preserved by Mr. Gilbert are 
records of emancipation movements and abolition 
meetings, beginning with the year 1783, when, in 
Woodbridge, Middlesex County, N. J., on the 4th 
of Jul\-, the first anniversary of our independence 
after the revolutionary war, an abolition meeting was 
held, at which time a Dr. Bloomfield emancipated 
fourteen slaves. The scene must have been impres- 
sive. Great preparations had been made, and an 
immense concourse of people had assembled. A 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 29 

platform was erected just above the heads of the 
spectators, and at a given signal the doctor, followed 
by his slaves, seven on the right and seven on the 
left hand, mounted the platform and addressed the mul- 
titude on the subject of slavery and its evils, and in 
conclusion said, " As a nation we are free and inde- 
pendent : all men are born equal, and why should 
these, my fellow-citizens, my equals, be held in bond- 
age ? From this day they are emancipated ; and I 
here declare them free and absolved from all servitude 
to me or my posterity." Then calling up one ad- 
vanced in years, he said, " Hector, whenever you 
become too old or infirm to support yourself, you are 
entitled to your maintenance from me or my property. 
How long do you suppose it will be before you will 
require maintenance? Hector held up his left hand, 
and with his right drew a line across the middle joints 
of his fingers, saying, " Never, never, massa, so long 
as any of these fingers remain below the joints." 
Then turning to the audience, the doctor remarked, 
" There, fellow-citizens, you see that liberty is as dear 
to the man of color as to you or me." The air now 
rang with shouts of applause, and thus the scene 
ended. Such incidents charmed him. He felt that 
they were types of great possibilities. He was proud 
to recall to the recollection of men who were fond of 
calling abolitionists fanatics, that Abolition Societies 
were formed as early as 1774, and that John Jay, 
Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, and Ben- 
jamin Rush occupied prominent positions in them. 
.He recognized Washington as an abolitionist, and 
took pleasure in recounting the triumphs of the party 



}Q MBMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

o[ freedom. Yet even here his glorying was linked 
to the cause oi Christ. He acknowledged with pleas- 
ure the obligations of the country to Benjamin Lun- 
ch , horn in Sussex County, N. J., who consecrated 
himself to the service of the negro, and labored to 
establish Abolition Societies as early as 1815, and who, 
after incredible hardships and privations, came to Bos- 
tun, and had the honor of awakening a passion for the 
cause of freedom in the breast of William Lloyd 
Garrison, who, born in Newburyport, Mass., in 1805, 
was then, at the age of twenty-three, editor of the Na- 
tional Philanthropist, an organ of the temperance 
movement. It was, however, his boast that while Mr. 
Garrison learned the value of human freedom, the 
worth of a human soul, though enshrined in a dark 
setting, he and William Crane, of Baltimore, and Clark- 
son and Wilberforce, learned the same glorious truth 
from the spirit inculcated by the gospel of Christ. 

The supposition widely prevails that freedom 
has been obtained for the enslaved in spite of the 
church. It is a groundless supposition. The church 
has led the way. Christians in this nineteenth century 
have made the age in which they live glorious, be- 
cause of what God has wrought through them and by 
them. The history of the triumphs of this principle 
is not half written, when the exploits of the so-called 
Liberty party are chronicled. Much is said against 
the church, and little is said against any one outside 
of the church ; just as much is said against Christians, 
and little is said against infidels, not because Chris- 
tians or the church are worse than infidels or world- 
lings, but because so much more is expected of those 
who profess a love for and an allegiance to Christ. 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 3 1 

On the hill-top of this century, as of others, pos- 
terity will behold the face of some prominent Chris- 
tian, who, through evil report and good report, has 
battled for the rights of man and the glory of God. 
If the church, as a body, has been slow to take hold of 
reformatory measures, it will be seen that the tardiness 
has not been in consequence of a want of a love for 
man, but from an apprehension that such a course of 
procedure would distract attention and imperil the 
interests of souls. In the great convocations of the 
Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodist churches, it is 
not true that those who resisted slavery agitations 
loved slavery or believed in it. They felt that the 
church and the societies to which they belonged were 
under obligations to render unto God the things which 
belonged to God. If this made them slow to render 
unto Caesar the things which belonged to Caesar, it is 
pleasant to discover that the fear arose, not because 
of a love for Caesar, but for Christ. 

The lives of Timothy Gilbert, Nathaniel Colver, 
William Crane, Jacob Knapp, Elon Galusha, and a 
host of others, prove that the interests of bondmen found 
advocates in the church as fearless, as uncompromis- 
ing, as valiant as ever were found in the ranks of re- 
formers. We do not wish to disparage the efforts 
made by Liberals and so-called infidels. They have 
wrought well if not wisely ; but we do contend that a 
comparison made in the church with the efforts made 
outside of it, will serve to reflect lasting honor upon 
the church as an agency of good even in promoting 
the temporal and political advancement of mankind. 

Space will not permit extended sketches of contem- 



3- 



MKMOlll OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 



poraries ; but a reference to them is essential to this 
record o\~ a life which identified itself with the benef- 
icent and heroic in the church and in the world. It 
is well to remember that seven years before Timothy 
Gilbert came to Boston, William Crane, born in New- 
ark. X. J.. 1790, went to Richmond, Va., where, in 
1815, the same year that Lundy formed an Abolition 
Society, he with others founded the African Mission- 
ary Society, with a view solely to missions in Africa. 
In the same year he established a night school, where, 
for three nights in the week, colored people were 
taught to read and write. Lott Cary, the pioneer 
missionary to Africa, received a large part of his 
education here, and was fitted for his responsible 
work in the land of his fathers and among the neg- 
lected people of his own race. 

The influence of Isaac T. Hopper's life in Philadel- 
phia and Xew York had much to do in giving shape 
and character to the spirit of reform. Born in New 
Jersey in 177 1 ? ne j°i ne d the Society of Friends, early 
removed to Philadelphia, and became prominent as 
the friend of the slave. It is a little singular that 
Xew Jersey, which in politics has ever been on the 
pro-slavery side, should have furnished a birthplace to 
so many advocates of freedom. The story of Mr. 
Hopper's life has been written by L. Maria Child. 
The incidents of that life in detached portions have 
for more than a half a century occupied their share 
of public attention. We can remember the effect of 
those accredited talcs, and can easily imagine the in- 
fluence they exerted upon the heart and mind of the 
youthful mechanic, alive to the interests of the cause 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 33 

of freedom. A slave comes by night to his unpre- 
tending home, and he relates the story of his escape, 
of his being discovered in the City of Brotherly Love, 
and of what Friend Hopper did for him. As a speci- 
men, take this treasured record of "Mary Halliday," 
a very light mulatto girl, in the service of a Mr. Fran- 
cis, a slave of a Mrs. Sears, of Maryland. 

She was discovered. Mrs. Sears claimed her. Mr. 
Francis, valuing her services, asks Mr. Hopper to try 
and purchase her for three hundred and fifty dollars. 
Mrs. Sears refuses to sell, and declares her purpose to 
take her back to Maryland, and to make an example 
of her. 

"I hope thou wilt find thyself disappointed," replies 
Friend Hopper. Finding himself beaten there, and 
disappointed in the result, he resolved to carry the 
case to a higher court. For that purpose he obtained 
a writ " de homine reftlegiando" and when the suita- 
ble occasion arrived he accompanied Mary Halliday 
to the mayor's office with a deputy sheriff to serve the 
writ. When the trial came on he urged the insuf- 
ficiency of proof brought by the claimant. The mayor 
replied in a peremptory tone, " I have already de- 
cided that matter. I shall deliver the slave to her 
mistress." Friend Hopper gave the sheriff the signal 
to serve the writ. He was a novice in the business, 
but, laying his hand upon her shoulder, said, " By 
virtue of this writ I replevin this woman and deliver 
her to Mr. Hopper." Her protector immediately bade 
Mary go home with him. Her mistress, seizing her 
arm, said, " She shall not go." The mayor was con- 
founded and perplexed, and inquired what the writ 



34 MOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

[t is a l komtne replegiandoj replied Friend 

% * I don't un what that means." "It is none 

the less powerful on that account It has taken the 
woman out of thy power, and delivered her to another 
tribunal." The mayor was puzzled, but told Mrs. 
S< s to let her go. She inquired. "What am I to 
eplied. •• Ask Mr. Hopper. His laws are 
above mine. I thought I knew something about the 
business, but it seems I don't." And so Mary in the 
end got fa 

.V slave accompanies his master — longs for free- 
dom — is told to keep quiet six months — does so — 
wins his freedom after a frightful contest with his 
master. These stories filled the air. 

There was something exciting in the hunt. Who 
has not seen the victim, with the fresh brand on arm 
and cheek, creep into the room, be fed and housed, and 
They came singly, and in companies of 
two. three, and four, to the house of Timothy Gilbert. 
These stories excited attention. This spirit of receiv- 
ing slaves became infectious. Slaveholders came 
North after their chattels. Slaves crept South after 
- and children. 

Uncle Tom's Cabin was born of this spirit, that was 
formed by these years of smouldering fires. 

Debates in neighborhoods and churches grew apace 
and waxed furious. 

The Christian heart of Timothy Gilbert was ready 

.:. His mind was made up. He was 

quiet, unostentati rmined, full of shifts and 

subterfuges; believed God. him for his care 

of the poor, and worked like a hero in the cam 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 35 

Look at the Congressional Debates, and we perceive 
in the discussion of 1819 the seedlings of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, and the anti-slavery agitation which 
shook the continent. 

Cobb, of Georgia, fixing his eye upon Tallmadge, 
the original mover of the restriction in the Missouri 
compromise debate, exclaimed, that " a fire had been 
kindled which all the waters of the ocean could not 
put out, and which only seas of blood could extin- 
guish " — a prophecy which Timothy Gilbert saw 
fulfilled. 

Tallmadge replied, " Language of this sort has no 
effect upon me. My purpose is fixed. It is inter- 
woven with my existence. Its durability is limited 
with my life. It is a great and glorious cause, — 
setting bounds to slavery the most cruel and debasing 
the world has ever witnessed. It is the cause of the 
freedom of man. If a dissolution of the Union must 
take place, let it be so. If civil war, which, gentlemen 
so much threaten, must come, I can only say, let it 
come. ... If blood is necessary to extinguish any 
fire which I have assisted to kindle, while I regret the 
necessity, I shall not hesitate to contribute my own. 
Are we to be told of the dissolution of the Union, of 
civil war, and seas of blood? And yet with such 
awful threatenings do gentlemen in the same breath 
insist on the extension of this evil and scourge — an 
evil brought on with dire calamities to us as individ- 
uals and to the nation, threatening in its progress to 
overthrow, along with the liberties of the country, all 
our notions of religion and morals. You behold 
southern gentlemen contributing to teach the doc- 



M KM OIK OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

brines oi Christianity in every part of the globe. 

Turn over the page, and you behold them legislating 

secure the ignorance and stupidity of their own 

slaves. The man who teaches a negro to read is 

liable to a criminal prosecution. The dark, benighted 

beings of all creation profit by our liberality, save 

our own plantations. Where is the mission- 

arv of hardihood enough to venture to teach the 

slaves of Georgia? Here is the stain, the stigma, 

which fastens on the character of our country, and 

which, in the appropriate language of the gentleman 

from Georgia, not all the waters of the ocean, only 

- of blood, can wash out." 

Timothy Gilbert was then twenty-two years of age. 
The church had a conscience at this time. Chris- 
tians South, as well as Christians North, were awake 
to such ajDpeals. We behold that handsome, black- 
eved. thoughtful mechanic pondering these truths. He 
takes his stand. A principle is begotten within him. 
.V negro is a man, and shall be considered a man. 
We shall see the results of this stand. Two years 
^one. 

The church shakes itself, and feels its fetters. Par- 
have formed and are forming. The opinion is 
entertained that slavery is a local sin, bound by state 
lines, and that freedom of thought and utterance shall 
not overleap them. 

A few radical men in Boston believed that truth 
of God, and scorned boundaries. In 183 1 there 
came from Virginia a protest concerning an incen- 
diary print being freely distributed among their peo- 
ple. Harrison Gray Otis, a former mayor of Boston, 
writes a letter, in which he says, — 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 37 

" The first information, received by me, of a dispo- 
sition to agitate this subject in our state, was from the 
governors of Virginia and Georgia, severally remon- 
strating against an incendiary newspaper published in 
Boston, and, as they alleged, thrown broadcast among 
their plantations, inciting to insurrection and its horrid 
results. It appeared, on inquiry, that no member of 
the city government of Boston had ever heard of 
the publication. Some time afterwards it was re- 
ported to me by the city officers, that they had ferreted 
out the paper and its editor ; that his office was an 
obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, 
and his supporters a very few insignificant persons of 
all colors. This information ... I communicated 
to the above-named governors, with an assurance of 
my belief that the new fanaticism had not made, nor 
was likely to make, proselytes among the respectable 
classes of our people." 

Such was the state of things in 1831. Anti-slavery, 
said, the Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, had an " obscure 
hole " for its headquarters. 

Ah, it had more than that. The heart of God was 
its headquarters, and the hearts of his children, among 
whom proudly stood Timothy Gilbert, were the chan- 
nel through which its currents found their way to this 
world. 

It is well to notice how and why this subject has 
been kept before the people. At the outset champions 
found a home in every state of the Union. Brave 
words and glowing tributes fell from the lips of a 
Pinkney of South Carolina, a Randolph of Vir- 
ginia, characterized by as earnest an utterance is ever 



j8 mi:moir of timothy gilbert. 

distinguished an Adams or a Sumner. The war of 
181a began to draw the lines. New England opposed 
the South. In 1S20 the battle became general. In 
1831 John Quincy Adams stood forth in the House 
of Representatives as the champion for the right of 
petition. In 1S37 the House adopted a rule, which 
sustained by the Senate, ordaining that no petition 
relating to slavery, nearly or remotely, should be read, 
debated, or considered. The state authorities ap- 
proved. Slavery was supported by the courts no less 
than by the fixed habits of thought and action among 
the people. 

In 1S32 the Nat Turner insurrection occurred in 
Virginia. It was well planned, but its author failed, 
and was destroyed. Henceforth colored preachers 
are banished from the pulpit. 

In 1 S3 1 John Quincy Adams took his seat in Con- 
>s, two years after he retired from the Presidency 
of the United States. He is sixty-four years of 
age, but the fires of youth burn unquenched in his 
veins. In 1835 his congressional career attracted 
national attention. With all the ardor and zeal of 
youth, he placed himself in the front ranks of the 
battle which ensued on the right of petition, plunged 
into the very midst of the melee, and with a dauntless 
courage, that won the plaudits of the world, held aloft 
the banner of freedom in the halls of Congress when 
other hearts quailed and fell back. In these contests 
a spirit blazed out, as he led the "forlorn hope," 
which electrified the nation with admiration. 

His first act was in relation to slavery. He pre- 
sented, on the 1 2th of December, 1831, fifteen peti- 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 39 

tions, numerously signed, for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. On he marched, when 
the most sanguine believed his almost superhuman 
labors would be in vain. Not so. Like the gnarled 
oak beaten by tempests, the sage of Quincy grew 
each day more hardy and more bold, as, unmoved by 
the storm raging around him, he battled for the right. 
His course was righteous. The air was full of a 
spirit that worked for him. Timothy Gilbert, in Bos- 
ton, wrote petition after petition, which were signed 
and forwarded. Whoever came to his office had the 
privilege of hearing some fresh utterance. In the 
church, on the street, in his home, and in his place of 
business, he fanned the flame of liberty. The opposi- 
tion in Congress, in abolishing the freedom of speech 
and the right of petition, to save an obnoxious institu- 
tion, went a step too far. They made an attempt to 
place their feet upon the neck of a free people. 
There were too many men like Timothy Gilbert in 
the North. From one end of the land to the other 
there was revolt, upheaval, shame, confusion, and 
disaster. Abolition Societies were formed. Docu- 
ments were circulated, while each day Adams fol- 
lowed petition with petition, now from the radical 
North and now from the slaveholding South, now from 
freemen and now from slaves, now that slavery may 
be abolished and now that it may be strengthened, 
until his enemies were confounded by his tactics, 
overwhelmed with confusion by his gathering reputa- 
tion and increasing power, and scathed by his words 
of irony, denunciation, and sublime utterances in be- 
half of freedom. 



40 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

He claimed that the South was bound and cemented 
together by a common intense interest of property to 
the amount oi $1,200,000,000 in human beings; that 
this vast sum is invested in property which comes 
under a classification once denominated by a govern- 
or in Virginia as " property acquired by crime"; 
k * which, in the purification of human virtue, and the 
progress of the Christian religion, has become, and is 
daily becoming, more and more odious ; that Wash- 
ington and Jefferson, themselves slaveholders, living 
and dying, bore testimony against it ; that it was the 
remorse of John Randolph dying ; that it is renounced 
and abjured by the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman 
Church ; abolished with execration by the Moham- 
medan despot of Tunis ; shaken to its foundations by 
the imperial autocrat of all the Russian, and the 
absolute monarch of Austria, — all, all bearing re- 
luctant and extorted testimony to the self-evident truth, 
that, by the laws of nature and of nature's God, man 
cannot be the property of man." 

" Recollect that the first cry of human feeling against 
this unhallowed outrage upon human rights came 
from ourselves ; that it passed from us to England, 
from England to France, and spread over the whole 
civilized world ; that after struggling for nearly a cen- 
tury against the most sordid interests and most furious 
passions of man, it made its way at length into the 
Parliament, and ascended the throne of the British 
Isles. The slave-trade was made piracy first by the 
Congress of the United States, and then by the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain. But the curse fastened, by 
the progress of Christian charity and of human rights, 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 41 

upon the African slave-trade, could not rest there. If 
the African slave-trade was piracy, the coasting Amer- 
ican slave-trade was piracy ; nor could its aggravated 
turpitude be denied. In the sight of the same God 
who abhors the iniquity of the African slave-trade, 
neither the American slave-trade nor slavery itself can 
be held guiltless." Such is a specimen of his style, 
and of fiery bolts he hurled against the tottering citadel 
of slavery. Soon he gained upon his adversary. Con- 
gressional district after district sent champions to his 
side. States reconsidered and resolved in his behalf. 
Church after church, and association after association, 
followed in the march to freedom, and kept step to 
the bugle notes of liberty. Soon he gained upon his 
adversaries. He saw the tide was turning, and then 
struck one masterly blow, not alone for freedom of 
petition and debate, but of bold and retaliatory war- 
fare. Like the enraged moose of our western wilds, 
when the hounds are wearied, and when his blood is 
up, he pounced upon his assailants with crushing 
force, and offered the following amendment to the 
Constitution, to be submitted to the people of the 
several states for their adoption: " From and after 
the 4th day of July, 1842, there shall be, throughout 
the United States, ?zo hereditary slavery ; but on and 
after that day, every child born within the United 
States shall be free." In 1845 the obnoxious rule of 
the House was rescinded. The freedom of debate 
and of petition was restored, and the unrestrained and 
irrepressible discussions of slavery by the press and 
political parties began. 

In the mean time the church had not been idle. In 



42 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Timothy Gilbert's parlor, anti-slavery meetings were 
o\ frequent occurrence. In his church his views were 
known. In the community he was a recognized power 
for the slave. In 1S50 the fugitive slave law passed. 
We cannot describe the scenes in Congress, in Boston, 
and throughout the Union. Timothy Gilbert, on 
Wednesday. September 25, 1850, through the " Even- 
ing Traveller," addressed his fellow-citizens in these 
words : — 

" This infamous bill has finally passed both Houses 
of Congress. My opinions may have but little 
weight with those who voted for it, but may help sus- 
tain the sinking spirit of some poor, disconsolate one, 
who. having fled from the land of oppressors, is anx- 
iously looking to see if there is any one who will give 
him a cheering look or a kind reception, or who dares 
to give him a crust of bread or a cup of water, and 
help him on the way. Allow me to say to such a 
one, that if pursued by the merciless slaveholder, and 
every other door in Boston is shut against him, there 
is a door that will be open at No. 2 Beach Street 
[now No. 8], and that the fear of fines and imprison- 
ments will be ineffectual when the pursuer shall de- 
mand his victim. If he enters before the fleeing cap- 
tive is safe, it will be at his peril. 

" I am opposed to war, and all the spirit of war, — 
even to all preparations for what is called self-defence 
in times of peace, — yet I should resist the pursuer, 
and not allow him to enter my dwelling until he was 
able to tread me under his feet. I will not trample 
upon any law, either of my own state or of the nation, 
that does not conflict with my conscientious duty to 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 43 

my God ; but Jesus has commanded, saying, ' All 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye even so to them.' " 

Pause a moment. The man is true to humanity — 
as true as was Theodore Parker, or Garrison, or Phil- 
lips, the thunders of whose eloquence shook Faneuil 
Hall, and resounded through the land. He did not 
turn away from Christ, nor ignore the divinity of the 
Son of God, while he battled for the humanity of the 
negro. He carried his love for Christ through all 
those years of obloquy and reproach ; and boldly 
writes in a public paper his reason for his conduct, 
saying, " Jesus has commanded," and then proceeds 
with the argument. Placing himself in the condition 
of the slave, he says, " If, for no crime, I had been 
taken and sold, and deprived of all the rights of my 
manhood, and degraded to the rank of a beast of bur- 
den, not only deprived of the opportunity to labor for 
the support of my wife and children, but even deprived 
of their kind sympathy and companionship whenever 
the interest or will of my oppressors should require it, 
and I should, at the peril of my life, flee from my 
oppressors, and they should pursue me to the dwelling 
of some poor disciple of Jesus, — it may be that of a 
colored man, — and I should beg of him to protect 
me, and help me to escape from the pursuers' grasp, 
should I not hope, if he was a Christian, he would 
give me bread and water, and help me on my way, 
regardless of the fines and imprisonments that such a 
kind act might render him liable to ? Could I expect 
to meet the approbation of my Lord if I did not do as 
much for the fleeing slave ? Can there be a Christian 



44 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 



in the land of the Pilgrims who will not do it, and 
besides do all in his power to prevent anyone of those 
senators or representatives in Congress, who voted for 
that infamous bill, from ever again misrepresenting 
any portion of the friends of freedom in Boston or 
A here? It is said, ' This is a law of the land, and 
must be obeyed.' To such I would say, c Whether it 
be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more 
than unto God, judge ye.' 

" I prefer to obey God, if in so doing I must break 
the laws of men and be punished, rather than violate 
the laws of God, and obey the laws of men to escape 
fines and imprisonments, or even death." Signed T. 
Gilbert, Boston, September 3, 1850. 

To this, as was usual in his letters, is attached a 
postscript. A friend once said, " Timothy Gilbert 
wrote letters for his postscripts. Read them, and you 
know why he wrote." In this postscript he explains 
why he calls the law infamous, and gives his reason 
in these w r ords : " Because by it the man or woman 
who is charged with being a slave is deprived of all 
the means of self-defence allowed to those charged 
with crimes, and to be delivered up summarily, with- 
out the right of trial by jury, or any other proper 
means of proving the charge groundless. Is it a worse 
crime to be a slave than to be a thief or a murderer?" 

Two facts deserve mention. That night, as soon as 
Theodore Parker had devoured the letter, while his 
heart was hot, he grasped his hat, ran round the cor- 
ner, found No. 2 Beach Street, rung the be^l, and 
said, "'Is Timothy Gilbert in?' Timothy Gilbert 
stepped into the hall, and then and there for the first 
time locked hands with that fiery apostle of freedom." 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 45 

Last spring, in Virginia, I pictured the scene, and 
related this story, to three thousand negroes in Rich- 
mond. Their sighs and sobs revealed the fact that an 
answering chord of sympathy had been struck, while 
their conduct to our brothers all through the war, 
their kindness to the poor, escaped prisoners, to the 
wounded and dying, show that the effect of our kind- 
ness to fleeing fugitives has made a deep impression 
upon the loyal African heart. 

There was another fact revealed to us by a scrap 
of history brought to our notice by the waves of war. 
We find the following in the " Massachusetts Weekly 
Spy," Worcester, October 29, 1862 : — 

" Rebel Documents. — One of our correspondents 
with the sixth regiment has been kind enough to 
send us several rebel documents found in a lawyer's 
office in Suffolk, Va. The office has been taken for 
a guard-house, its owner, Nathaniel Reddick, being 
now in Jeff Davis's army. Among the papers is a 
receipt for i one negro woman named Reuben,' signed 
by Reddick aforesaid ; also a challenge to mortal com- 
bat from one Graham to a Dr. Bradford, dated 1796. 
The challenge appears to have been accepted, for, 
says the bearer in his return, ' His answer was, at the 
Cool Springs he would meet you at daylight on Sun- 
day morning.' Whether or not either of the parties 
was killed is a matter of painful uncertainty. Last, 
but not least, we have a letter under date of New 
York, January 21, 1851, written by one of the Red- 
dicks, and addressed to Benjamin, the lawyer, in which 
the writer gives a chapter of his experience in pursuit 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

of a fugitive slave. The ' case/ we presume, will be 
readily recalled by parties in Boston. Riley, referred 
to in the letter, doubtless means Patrick Riley, who, 
if we mistake not, was a deputy under United States 
Marshal Devens. The 'man Gilbert' clearly refers 
[Timothy Gilbert, a well-known citizen of Boston, 
the manufacturer of Gilbert's piano-fortes. ' The fac- 
which the writer refers to can be none other 
that his extensive warehouse. The narrative is too 
interesting to keep, and notwithstanding the writer's 
request to * keep things as dark as possible,' we give 
the letter entire : — 

H New York, January 21, 1850. 

" Dear Sir : This morning very unexpectedly finds 
us in Xew York. We left Boston yesterday about 
three o'clock P. M., and arrived here last night about 
twelve M. Monday morning, about three o'clock, 
in disguise and in company with the officers, we w^ent 
and guarded every street leading to the factory, and 
were perfectly certain of arresting the boy ; thought 
there could not be a doubt, but were disappointed. 
We were then satisfied that he had got the wind of us. 
On Saturday evening, after I had written to you, one 
or two of the officers went in an adjoining house to 
the factory, and endeavored to see inside of the fac- 
tory, and there discovered a boy answering fully the 
description of Lewis. On Monday morning, after we 
had failed in our endeavor to arrest him, having re- 
tired to our place of rendezvous, one of the officers 
stepped in with that morning's paper (the ' Com- 
monwealth,' the main abolition paper of the city), 
and there the matter was blown. They had discovered 



HIS MANNER OF LIFE. 47 

these men around the factory on Saturday evening, 
and ferreted out their design, and the fugitives were 
immediately put on the alert ; and also two kidnappers 
and slave-stealers were said to be in the city, and it 
gave them h — 11. We then had a consultation with 
Spencer, the marshal (Riley), and other officers em- 
ployed, and they advised us to leave the city immedi- 
ately, to allay suspicion. The marshal said he was 
positively satisfied, by our adopting that course, that 
he could soon succeed in arresting him. He, and all 
concerned, appeared to be much mortified that the 
thing should have got out, and he swears to have him 
at all risks. So we left" the papers with such direc- 
tions as were necessary, and are now in New York, 
and intend waiting a few days to hear from Boston. 
All of the officers are satisfied that they will know the 
boy, upon sight, beyond a doubt — one of them cer- 
fainly saw him while we were in Boston. 

"We have kept all of our proceedings a profound 
secret, and it is very necessary that secrecy should be 
preserved for some time yet. We are fully satisfied — 
or at least I am — that the boy is yet in Boston, and 
in the house of this man Gilbert, the owner of the fac- 
tory. He is quite wealthy (the piano-forte man), and 
the grandest abolitionist in Boston. He will pay 
fugitive slaves more for work than any other persons, 
and give them the privileges of his private residence, 
table, &c. ; has private watchers employed for the 
better security of fugitives, &c, &c. 

" Keep things as dark as possible. 
" Yours truly, 

" F. C. Reddick." 



4S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

We are glad to add, as a supplement to this letter, 
that the United States Marshal Devens has proven 
himself to be the friend of the slave. Mrs. L. Maria 
Child, in a recent letter, gives him the credit for offer- 
ing to pay the eighteen hundred dollars required to 
free Thomas Sims, while, as an officer in the war, he 
has been not only a defender of the country, but the 
champion of freedom, and is now a firm and consistent 
advocate for negro suffrage. 

Those words of the slave-hunter furnish a beautiful 
inscription for Mr. Gilbert's monument, and a fitting 
close to this portion of his career in behalf of freedom. 
" He was the grandest abolitionist in Boston." Grand- 
est because his loyalty to man never shook or disturbed 
his loyalty to God. 

In Scotland they tell of the grandeur of Ben Nevis," 
because the granite pushes its way up through the 
mica schist, while the porphyry crowds up through 
the granite, and crowns the summit. That mountain 
reminds me of Timothy Gilbert. As a man, he was 
worthy of high eulogy ; as a philanthropist, he has 
won higher praise ; but it is his Christianity that 
crowds up through his manhood and through his 
philanthropy, and to-day attracts the notice of man- 
kind. 



49 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS MARRIAGE. THE TREMONT TEMPLE ENTER- 
PRISE. NATHANIEL COLVER. 

Less than five years by thirty days after his arrival 
in Boston, he took to wife Mary Wetherbee, who was 
born in Ashburnham, Mass., July 7? 1796. Their only 
child, Mary Eunice, was born in Massachusetts, June 
8, 1827, and afterwards became the wife of his partner 
in business and steadfast friend, Major William H. 
Jameson. 

Miss Wetherbee possessed many remarkable traits 
of character. She was cheerful, and filled her home 
with sunshine. She was talented, and exerted a 
marked influence upon the circle in which she moved. 
She was benevolent and philanthropic to an extraor- 
dinary extent. Her footstep was a familiar sound as 
she climbed the garret stairways bearing food or 
medicine to the poor and sick. She was a felt power 
in the church and in the community. Her hand bound 
up the wounds of many a scarred slave, and supplied 
the wants of many a half-famished fugitive. The 
home of Timothy Gilbert was for years the station of 
the underground railroad in Boston. Men who were 
known to be true to liberty, in Hartford and elsewhere, 
relate that the slaves that passed through were all 
booked for No. 2 Beach Street. Sometimes as many 
3 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

as half a dozen oi a night found shelter, friends, and 
comfort beneath that hospitable roof. A man cannot 
keep such a home unless the wife is willing. Mary 
Wetherbee Gilbert was ever willing, and the blessings 
of those read\- to perish came to her in rich abundance. 

She was devotedly pious, and shared with her hus- 
band his trials and his joys, and labored in the cause 
of Christ and humanity with pleasure to herself and 
with profit to those about her. 

They went to keeping house in May, 1826. Early 
in 1S29 he dissolved partnership with E. R. Currier, 
and commenced business alone in some lofts now oc- 
cupied by John Putnam, but vacated by John Osborne 
in 1S29. 

The ten years that follow were passed in the quiet 
discharge of duties incident to the position he occupied 
in the church and in the world. His relations to the 
church in Charles Street, though in the main pleasant, 
induced him to seek a more congenial atmosphere, 
where he might give expression to his anti-slavery 
opinions. It is said, that when he contemplated unit- 
ing with Federal Street, there was a feeling of opposi- 
tion on the part of some of the members because of his 
ultra views. Soon after his uniting with the church, he 
filled his pew with colored people. No one objected. 
Soon he became satisfied with the views of the church, 
and during his brief sojourn he pursued a course that 
endeared him to the membership, and secured, for the 
free place of worship he went out to establish, their 
sympathy and aid. In a letter addressed to the Tre- 
mont Street Church, September 3, 1852, he alludes 
to the supposition that it was his devotion to the anti- 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 



51 



slavery reform which led him to take his stand, and 
says, " I came out from another church to aid in the 
formation of a free Baptist Church in Boston, not from 
any ill feeling towards those I left, nor wholly from a 
desire to carry out what I believed, and still believe, to 
be the principles of the Bible regarding slavery, in- 
temperance, and other evils in the church of Christ ; 
but my ultimate object, and without which I should 
not have been likely to have undertaken the enterprise, 
was to open in the city a centrally located house of 
worship, with free seats, on some self-supporting plan, 
where all, whatever might be their condition or cir- 
cumstances in life, might have an opportunity to hear 
the gospel and enjoy the means of grace." 

It was not then for political reasons, or even for the 
purpose of promoting any special reform, that he came 
out to enter upon this work. Boston churches were 
crowded. The pulpit was alive to the questions of the 
hour, and many of the churches were enjoying precious 
revivals. 

Then, as now, a vast multitude were unreached. It 
was difficult to obtain sittings for strangers, and 
especially for the poor, in the houses of God. He 
longed to see the rich and poor meet together on a 
common level in the sanctuary, and so he con- 
ceived of the plan, which, if carried out, would make 
such a place largely self-sustaining. Hence he said, 
" I did this, having in view the fact that several other 
unsuccessful attempts had been made in New York 
and Boston. 

" That fact, probably more than any other, led me, 
in order to prevent a failure,' and have any reasonable 



J2 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

hope of success, to seek for a place where the income 
of the property would in part, if not altogether, pay 
for itself — meet the current expenses of keeping the 
same in repair, support preaching so far as it was safe 
to do so. secure an active and efficient church, and in 
the end, if possible* have something to provide for the 
wants of the poor, of which such a church and con- 
gregation would be likely chiefly to consist." This 
he declares to have been his original purpose, and to 
have stated it to individuals and to the church without 
provoking any objections. With this object in view 
his mind was directed to the estate on which the 
Boston Museum now stands, and also to another site 
at the corner of Court and Sudbury Streets, both for 
sale. It was his custom — so he relates — frequently to 
go out at night in the hope of resting a weary brain 
and giving loose rein to his desires and longings for a 
free house of worship into which he might welcome 
the poor. At these times he would take long walks 
through the deserted streets. On one of these oc- 
casions, while oppressed and burdened with the con- 
dition of the young mechanics and apprentices, and 
also of the great crowd of strangers without a Sabbath 
home, he was walking down School Street, having just 
passed Tremont Theatre, when, suddenly impressed 
with the mission of such an establishment as the 
charter of Tremont Temple contemplates, he stopped, 
and retraced his steps, and stood in front of the old 
theatre. It was the noon of night. The bells were 
striking. The streets were silent. He bared his head 
and took his vow, offering a prayer for guidance. 
Immediately he took steps to ascertain what was 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 53 

required to make the purchase. To his surprise he 
found that for twelve thousand five hundred feet of 
land in the heart of Boston, covered by a building, 
substantially built, with a marble front and solid 
brick walls, the small sum of fifty-five thousand dol- 
lars would suffice to secure the property. He re- 
garded the fact that capitalists should have failed to 
take it as a remarkable providence in his favor. 
Though the church was feeble in pecuniary strength, 
so that by many it was thought presumptuous to make 
the attempt, though many of the newspapers intimated 
that we should fail after the work was begun, which, 
considering the magnitude of the undertaking and our 
real strength, was not surprising ; yet the Lord was 
on our side, and by his signal interpositions turned 
back the shafts of our enemies, and in several instances 
caused that which was intended to embarrass us to turn 
out for the advancement of the object. In this way, 
and not by our skill, or wisdom, or strength, the work 
was accomplished. It was the Lord's work, and it is 
marvellous in our eyes. There is a secret history 
which deserves to be uncovered. Few know into 
what straits and difficulties he was led by this un- 
dertaking. He records the fact that it -Was only by 
divine favor almost miraculously manifested, that the 
property now known as the Tremont Temple estate, is 
prospectively secured to the cause of Christ. 

The following letter serves to throw light upon this 
portion of history : — 

Washington, D. C, October 1, 1865. 

Dear Bro. Fulton : My first acquaintance with 
Mr. Gilbert was in 1840, when the First Baptist Free 



J4 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

church (as it was then called) worshipped in Julian 
Hall, at the corner of Milk and Congress Streets, 
Boston. Mr. Gilbert was one of the original members 
o\ the church, and took a deep interest in its welfare 
and success. He was fully impressed with the im- 
portance of there being at least one place of worship 
in Boston with free seats, where all persons, whether 
rich or poor, without distinction of color or condition, 
could take a seat where they pleased, and have the 
gospel preached to them in its purity. He felt that 
such a place was needed in Boston, especially for the 
large class of floating population of young persons, 
male and female, who were not regular attendants at 
any church, but who might be induced to attend if the 
seats were free. To the accomplishment of this object 
he devoted much of his time, and of the means which 
his success in business had enabled him to accumulate, 
recognizing, as he always did, that plain principle of 
Christian duty (too often practically denied by many 
professed Christians), that all the property God, in his 
providence, places in our hands,' is to be used as his, 
and not as our own ; and that, as his stewards, we are 
accountable to him for the use of our time, and the 
means committed to our care. 

Soon after the removal of our place of worship from 
Milk Street to the corner of Tremont and Bromfield 
Streets, Mr. Gilbert became deeply impressed with the 
importance of securing an eligible lot of land upon 
which to erect a large audience-room, capable of seat- 
ing the thousands who were wandering around the 
streets and the Common on the Sabbath, but few of 
whom could be seated in the small hall occupied by 
us, and which was crowded to excess. 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 55 

At this time I was his confidential clerk, and a 
member of the same church with him, and had, per- 
haps, a better opportunity than any one else of know- 
ing his anxiety on the subject, and the immense amount 
of thought and labor which he prayerfully devoted to 
the accomplishment of the object which he believed 
God required should be accomplished. 

Among other sites examined was the one now oc- 
cupied by Kimball's Museum, on Tremont Street. The 
property was then owned by Hon. John C. Gray. 
After Mr. Gilbert had personally surveyed the land 
himself, and ascertained how large a hall could be 
built upon it, he went into a careful estimate of what 
an appropriate building would cost, and how much 
income might be obtained from the stores under the 
hall. 

He then obtained from Mr. Gray his terms for the 
land, and a refusal of it for a certain length of time. 
He held frequent consultations with Deacon Simon G. 
Shipley, Thomas Gould, and William S. Damrell, all 
of whom were true friends of the enterprise, and had 
the fullest confidence in Mr. Gilbert's judgment and 
purity of motives, and were always ready to aid him 
to the extent of their ability. Just as matters were as- 
suming a shape which seemed to warrant the purchase 
of the property, other parties commenced negotiating 
for the same, and Mr. Gray wrote a note to Mr. Gil- 
bert, withdrawing his offer to sell on the terms he had 
before given. Mr. Gilbert was sadly disappointed, 
and endeavored to induce Mr. Gray to consent to bis 
former terms, but without success. 

About this time the owners of the Tremont Theatre 



56 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

advertised that building for sale. Mr. Gilbert im- 
mediately made a thorough examination of that prop- 
erty, and consulted with the three persons I have 
before named, also with Deacon Samuel Hill, of South 
Boston, another true friend of the enterprise. Many 
a night have I spent with Mr. Gilbert, till near mid- 
night, making estimates as to what it would cost to re- 
model the building, and what income could be reason- 
ably expected from the stores and lettings of the halls. 

Just at this time Mr. Gilbert met with an obstacle 
which gave him considerable anxiety. Upon consult- 
ing with his then partner in business, he found that, 
although he wished the object success, and was willing 
to do all he thought reasonable to accomplish it, he 
was fearful that it would take so much of Mr. Gilbert's 
time, and of the means of the firm, that it might 
seriously interfere with their business ; and therefore 
he hesitated to give his consent. I well recollect the 
conversation he had with his partner on the subject, 
and it ended by his saying to him, " Well, think and 
pray over the matter to-night, and let me know in the 
morning your decision." In the morning his partner 
said, " I cannot see my way clear to consent." 
" Well," said Mr. Gilbert, " I have prayed much over 
the subject, and think God requires me to do it; and 
if I cannot do it with you as my partner, I must do it 
without your being my partner." 

Finding that Mr. Gilbert felt that his duty to God 
required him to do it, his partner then consented. 

Having been thus relieved by the consent of his 
partner, what was his surprise, on taking up the morn- 
ing paper, to find, among the items of news, that the 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 57 

Tremont Theatre had been sold to the Massachusetts 
Charitable Mechanics' Association, and that the papers 
had been passed the day before. His disappointment 
was extreme, that after all his labors and anxiety, God 
had seemed again to block his way to success. I sug- 
gested to him that possibly the report in the papers 
might not be true, and, at his request, I went im- 
mediately to see the treasurer of the Theatre Corpora- 
tion, who informed me that a bargain had been made 
with the Mechanics' Association, and he had considered 
it settled, but that the previous afternoon, when he 
met the representatives of the Association to pass the 
papers, he found there was a misunderstanding, the 
Mechanics' Association claiming that the chandeliers 
and gas-fixtures were to be included in the purchase, 
while the Theatre Corporation insisted that they were 
not to be included, and that this small matter only had 
prevented the consummation of the sale. He said he 
had no doubt the Association would, upon reflection, 
yield their claim to the gas-fixtures, but that he was 
?iow at liberty to make the sale to any one else. 

I returned at once, and informed Mr. Gilbert, and 
we immediately went with Messrs. Shipley, Gould, 
Damrell, and, I think, Deacon Clement Drew, and 
had the papers drawn up and signed, made the re- 
quired payment, and consummated the purchase that 
day. 

About this time I became a partner in business with 
Mr. Gilbert and Mr. Safford, and Mr. Gilbert devoted 
nearly his whole time to superintending the remodel- 
ling of the building. For nearly a year his mind was 
engrossed and his time spent at the building ; and 

3* 



58 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

again, when the old Tremont Temple was destroyed, 
he devoted all his time, and the entire credit of the 
firm, in rebuilding the present structure, performing 
an amount of labor, and assuming pecuniary respon- 
sibilities, known to but few at the time. 

I have thus hastily and briefly stated a few facts, 
which I thought, perhaps, may not have come to 
your notice. 

His other services in the church, and his successful 
efforts to prevent the Temple from being sold out of 
the control of the Baptist denomination, are, no doubt, 
well known to you. 

Thank God, he lived to see two objects accom- 
plished, for which he had long labored and prayed, 
viz., our beloved country redeemed from the curse of 
slavery, and the Tremont Temple enterprise a perma- 
nent success. 

Yours, truly, 

Wm. H. Jameson. 

Mr. G.'s consecration to Christ was only equalled by 
his reliance upon Christ. Frequently, when his way 
was hedged up and he could see no hope of deliverance, 
when he wanted money to meet his obligations and 
keep the Temple from interfering with his legitimate 
business, with a faith second neither to that which 
characterized Elijah when he prayed for fire to de- 
scend from heaven, nor that which distinguished Muller 
when he spread out the wants of his orphans, he has 
been known to shut himself up in his room, and ab- 
stain from food, from society, from family, and from 
business, that he might uncover the interests of the 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 59 

cause of Christ, spread them out before God, and ciy 
for help. When he gained the assurance of victory 
he would descend with a smile from his mount of 
prayer, and was never known to be disappointed in 
results. It is a fact that burdens steady the lone 
column. Is it not possible that these trials, coming 
in the midst of anti-slavery excitements, held him as 
with hooks of steel to the cause espoused and to the 
church? " I am sure," said he, " that no one who has 
gone to God as I have, and received such manifest 
tokens of the divine favor, would now dare abandon 
the undertaking that had been so signally favored, 
while there was any reasonable prospect left that it 
could be carried through. I could, with as little com- 
punctions of conscience, set my face against the church 
of Christ, and advocate infidelity, as to turn against 
the enterprise in which I had so manifestly seen God's 
favor." He was then in the prime of a healthy man- 
hood, had enough of persistency and stick-to-ative- 
ness about him to follow up his convictions, and so 
the conception which dropped into his mind as a 
thought from God, grew until he came to believe in 
the possibility of furnishing, in the centre of Boston, a 
place of worship free and accessible to all, which 
might win the present beautiful appellation of " The 
Stranger's Sabbath Home." The plan was simple 
and unique. It was no other than to take a building 
of sufficient capacity, fit it up for stores and offices, 
the rent of which should provide for current expenses 
and repairs, and at the same time, when the debt was 
removed, furnish a mission fund to be used in pro- 
viding for the destitute at home and abroad. 



60 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The Tremont Street Church was formed of eighty- 
two members, April iS, 1S39, anc ^ f° r twelve years 
was served by Nathaniel Colver as pastor. The num- 
ber added by baptism and letter during the year 1840 
was ninety ; in 1841, thirty ; in 1842, one hundred and 
twenty- six. 

The retrospect from this point is delightful. When 
the project was started, and the foundations of this 
enterprise were laid, the cause of Christ, in Boston, was 
going on from conquest to conquest. Baldwin Place 
Church was crowded under the ministry of Rev. Baron 
Stow, D. D. Rollin H. Neale, a young man, began his 
ministry in 1837, an( ^ m J ^3^ there was not a seat to 
be found in that thronged sanctuary where waiting 
crowds hung spell-bound, and listened with delight 
to an oratory which then as now glows with the love 
of Christ. Charles Street was at court end, crowded 
with the hundreds who admired the courtly Daniel 
Sharp, whose praise is yet in all the churches, while 
the Hall in Boylston Street in which Robert Turn- 
bull preached, and the house in Federal Street in 
which the eloquent Howard Malcom had minis- 
tered, waited with a splendid congregation to welcome 
a worthy successor, which they found in William 
Hague. Then it was Nathaniel Colver came. He 
was fresh from the country. He was impulsive, bold, 
eloquent, thoroughly honest, somewhat eccentric. He 
was a power because he was a man of God. He 
swayed a mighty influence. Born in Orwel, Ver- 
mont, May 10, 1794, the son of a minister of Christ, 
who was noted as a self-made man, strong and lucid 
in the exhibition of truth, attributing his conversion 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. OI 

to the accumulating power of God's word, long and 
intense thought, attended by the Holy Ghost ; from 
a child accustomed to strong religious impressions, 
the result of a pious mother's influence, when the 
Spirit of God wrought his work in his heart, there 
was a change produced. He loved to describe it. 
He had been to an evening meeting. He was on 
his way home. His burden was too heavy for him to 
bear. He went into the woods, and there, like Jacob 
by the brook, wrestled for deliverance. It came at 
the break of day, and he arose a new man in Christ 
Jesus. When he came to Boston, parties were ran- 
ging for a desperate conflict. Possessed of a clear and 
logical mind, endowed with a lively imagination, with 
great powers of argumentation, a ready debater, per- 
fectly fearless in the enunciation of truth, — he took at 
once a foremost position, and became a champion of 
the oppressed, and a leading advocate of Temperance 
and of Reform. 

Two letters addressed to " Dear brother Gilbert," 
dated April 10, and May 10, 1839, revea l the heart of 
the man, his attachment to his flock in Greenwich, 
N. Y., and at the same time his fondness for the 
work in Boston. He was " bound in the spirit." 
He asks the church to meet him at the throne of grace 
at half past nine o'clock each evening. "I feel as if it 
would be a pleasure to me to stand up in one of your 
little parlor meetings and preach from the text, 
' What is thy beloved more than any other beloved,' 
or from David's words, c Whom have I in heaven but 
thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside 
thee.' 



6l MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

1 What wondrous grace in Jesus reigns 
To love and cleanse us from our stains, 
That with his own best robe adorns, 
And puts a comeliness on worms ! ' 

" I love David and Solomon because they spoke so 
well of my God. I admire that a religion so old as 
to have been their companion, can be so fresh and 
new as it appears to me to-night. David's offering 
was a broken heart. The fires of divine love con- 
sumed it upon the altar. O Lord, help me to lay my 
heart, all broken, upon the same altar, and let the same 
fire come down from heaven and embrace it." 

Breathing this spirit of consecration to the service 
of Christ, he came to Boston and was installed as 
pastor of the First Free Church, afterwards known as 
the Tremont Street Church, and now by the union of 
the Baptist Church in Merrimac Street with the Tre- 
mont Street Baptist Church, the Union Temple Baptist 
Church, on September 15, 1839, m * ne First Baptist 
Church. For three months the church met in Tre- 
mont Row, one year in Congress Hall, and afterwards 
until the completion of the Temple, in a Hall under 
the Museum building, corner of Tremont and Brom- 
field Streets. 

In Nathaniel Colver, Deacon Gilbert found his coun- 
terpart. They were unlike in many particulars, but 
were admirably adapted to work together. Mr. Gil- 
bert was extremely anxious that his pastor should be 
stripped of all infirmities, that, fetterless and free, he 
might pursue his work for God and souls. 

The story of Mr. C. being cured from the use of 
tobacco deserves mention. When he came to Boston 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 63 

he was an inveterate user of the weed. It grieved 
and tried Deacon Gilbert. We have noticed the dea- 
con's adherence to a principle, and the means he used 
to press his point. One day he gave his pastor a 
five-dollar bill, and told him to hand it back when he 
recommenced the use of the narcotic. By some strange 
mishap Mr. Colver lost the bill. Then came back the 
desire to smoke with increased strength. Mr. C. 
took another bill, and carried it to the deacon, lay- 
ing it down, and saying, " I have concluded to resume 
the use of tobacco." Those who are familiar with the 
deacon will recall with what moderation he would turn 
around, take up the bill, and express his sorrow. 
While looking at the money his black eye flashed. A 
thought illumined his face. He perceived that his 
pastor was in his power, and that he was master of 
the situation. Quietly and calmly he remarked, hand- 
ing it back, "This is not the bill I gave you, and 
before you can smoke with my consent you must re- 
turn that one." " But I have lost it," exclaimed the 
pastor. " Can't help it," replied the deacon. Two 
determined men met and stood face to face. Timothy 
Gilbert, in such a cause, was immovable. The search 
was renewed and prosecuted for a time, but at last 
principle came to his aid, and the mastery was gained, 
and Mr. Colver became a strong anti-tobacco advo- 
cate. 

Mr. Gilbert would not allow the use of tobacco in his 
house without making it unpleasant for those who 
indulged in the degrading practice, and he exerted a 
strong influence towards weeding out this cursed poison 
from the ranks of the ministry, as many others can bear 



64 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

witness besides the first pastor of the Tremont Street 
Church. 

As has been intimated, the church were accustomed 
to gather for prayer in Mr. Gilbert's parlors, where 
the poorest was welcomed as well as those capacitated 
to share his burdens. That little company has been 
thinned by death ; yet a few remain who remember 
those seasons of refreshing from on high, and each 
and all speak of the happiness of him who placed his 
talents, property, and time upon the altar of sacrifice. 
The close and pungent preaching of the pastor de- 
lighted and fed him. The cry, " I am wounded," 
which frequently greeted their ears as some lost soul 
sought Christ, was to him like the song of the turtle 
and the singing of birds-*- the precursor of the com- 
ing of the Lord. He carried his principles into his 
business and into his pleasures. He was not a com- 
panionable man. He was full of energy and push, 
and made the indolent uneasy in his presence, and by 
his life and speech evidenced very little respect for 
those who desired rest. His wife shared his sympathy, 
and had wonderful control over his restless spirit. 
She was a helpmeet indeed. Here is a glimpse of a 
meeting sketched by her hand in a letter dated May 5, 
1840: " Beloved Husband : I have just received 
your kind and affectionate letter. Although I have 
since heard from you, through Mr. SafYord, yet to 
receive a letter from you is very grateful to my feel- 
ings. Every word is like apples of gold in pictures 
of silver. I expect you would like to hear from the 
church, and so I will give you an account of the Fri- 
day evening meeting. Five candidates related their 



TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE. 65 

experience. For that reason there was not time for a 
covenant meeting. Sabbath day, Mr. Colver baptized 
at South Boston. In the afternoon Mr. Colver gave 
the right hand of fellowship to about thirty. We had 
a very precious season. Surely the Lord is good to 
us; let his praise be ever upon our lips." On the 
same sheet is a note, written by his daughter, which 
shows the child's heart, and indicates the child's love 
and confidence. " Dear Father : I received your kind 
letter this afternoon, and read it with interest. I wish 
I could love the Saviour as well as I do you ; but I 
can't feel as I ought. If I try to think about anything 
serious, my thoughts will wander to something else, 
and I can't keep my mind on it. -I wish you would 
pray for me, that my thoughts may be kept upon the 
Saviour. I want to see you very much, indeed ; it seems 
as though you had been gone a month. Please write 
me another letter before you come home, if it is con- 
venient." How truthfully such letters mirror the 
home life of a man ! Two days later the wife writes, 
" The time seems very long since you left, but I hope 
to see you now soon. I should like to hear of your 
prosperity, but I hope neither of us will be over- 
anxious about temporal concerns. If our souls pros- 
per, and are in health, we shall be happy, whether in 
prosperity or adversity. In your letter you mentioned 
that you thought of the church in the hour of prayer. 
I can assure you, you are not forgotten by them. At 
the close of the meeting, all ask when I expect you 
home, and exclaim, 4 How we miss him ! ' And Mr. 
Colver said, last evening, ' It made a big hole in Bos- 
ton to have you gone.' I hope we shall not think too 



66 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

much of the creature, and forget the Creator — the 
: fountain from whence all our blessings flow. It 
- me pleasure to learn of your access to the throne 
of grace. It must be very sweet, after the toils of the 
day. to retire alone, and commune with your heavenly 
Father ; to feel that we have a Saviour, that careth for 
us. on whom we can roll all our cares, and tell him 
every joy and every sorrow ; one who has said, not a 
hair of your head shall fall to the ground without his 
notice. May our love for the precious Saviour in- 
crease every day. until our hearts are filled with his 
love, and we can tread the world beneath our feet." 
The thirteen-year-old daughter adds, in her usual 
place, ;; Dear Father : I want to see you very much. 
and give you a kiss." This letter also furnishes the 
intimation, that Mr. Colver is going to London, to 
attend the great convention, and reveals the way the 
money was raised, when Sewing Societies and Eman- 
cipation Societies united in sending their fearless rep- 
resentative to the world's great mart, to vindicate the 
cause of oppressed humanity. 



6 7 



CHAPTER V. 

REV. JACOB KNAPP THE BAPTIST CAUSE IN BOSTON 

IN 184O. THE CHARACTER OF THE EVANGELIST, 

AND HIS WORK IN NEW BEDFORD, PROVIDENCE, 

AND BOSTON. LETTER FROM MR. KNAPP, SHOWING 

THE PART BORNE IN THE WORK BY MR. GILBERT. 

In 1840 the Bowdoin Square Church was formed, 
with one hundred and forty members, and with the 
erudite and scholarly Robert W. Cushman for pastor. 
The churches of Boston at that time were largely led 
by young men with whose names fame has long been 
familiar. In the pulpit of the First Church was 
Rollin H. Neale ; Baron Stow ministered in Baldwin 
Place, William Hague in Federal Street, Daniel Sharp 
in Charles Street, Robert Turnbull in Boylston Street, 
and Nathaniel Colver in Tremont Street. Dr. Neale 
had been but a few years out of the seminary, and 
was noted even then for his eloquence and power. 
The church in Baldwin Place was thronged, and the 
ardent and impulsive Stow thrilled the hearts of 
waiting multitudes. William Hague was in the midst 
of a powerful work in Federal Street. Then, as now, 
he was planning large things for the cause of his Mas- 
ter, and reaped with no sparing hand. At this period, 
so opportune for the churches, the cloud appeared over 
New Bedford, and the sound of an abundance of rain 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

heard in various r. f Xew England. On 

the 5 th day of June, Rev. Jacob Knapp unfurled in 
Xew Bedford the banner of the cross, in f the 

ship-mas;. sailors of that city by the sea. Rev. 

Henry Jackson, pastor hurch. in a letter to the 

Taunton Association, says. *• For seven weeks, in the 
midsummer months, the people met him in the house 
of God thrice daily, except when detained by ill 
health." Days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer 
were observed. Incessant and importunate prayer 
continually ascended to God. A few persons indulged 
a hope, but the great mass of the unconverted were 
unaffected. The church was confident that so much 
prayer could not be lost. They held to the promises 
of God's word, and pleaded for the honor of Jehovah. 
the reputation of the cross of Christ, and the value of 
souls, that God would not withhold his Spirit. Many 
obstacles existed. The heat of the weather, the pres- 
-ar: :f aasiitess. the shortness of the evenings, and. 
a": :ve ah. the infidelity of the people, and the unbe- 
lief of Christians, seemed for a season to baffle everv 
effort. At last the Spirit came down with mighty- 
power, and hundreds crowded the rooms of prayer. 
deeply in earnest to know what they must do to be 
saved. The endre choir were converted. Baptismal 
scenes were indescribably solemn when evangelist and 
pastor buried willing disciples at the same time in the 
likeness of Christ. About three hundred and fifty- 
were hopefully converted to God. This meeting in- 
troduced Jacob Knapp to Xew England. 

He was then forty-two years of age. He possessed 
transcendent abilities as an orator. He was Christ's 



MR. KNAPP's BIRTH AND LIFE. 69 

lieutenant, and knew how to get his Captain's com- 
panies into line, and prepare them for action. He 
believed in a personal God and in a personal devil. 
Like Luther, he was a man of faith and a man of war. 
Born in Otsego, Otsego County, N. Y., December 7, 
1799, the son of a farmer, his parents members of the 
Episcopal church, he was early indoctrinated into the 
forms. When converted to God, he was led not by a 
minister or a church, but by the Spirit and word of 
God, to be a Baptist. He was immersed by Rev. 
Daniel Robertson, in Masonville, Delaware County, 
N. Y., in 1819. He entered the literary and theologi- 
cal institution of Hamilton, N. Y., in 1822, and grad- 
uated in 1825. For eight years he preached as a 
pastor, after which he devoted himself to the work of 
an evangelist. Of him, as a man of God, there have 
been, and will be, a diversity of views. He was bold, 
uncompromising, and determined. His preaching 
would please those who wanted the devil's kingdom 
stirred up, while it would displease those who longed 
for peace and quiet. Of his general character there 
was but one opinion ; but of the measures he em- 
ployed, and the course he pursued, in these meetings, 
various and conflicting opinions were entertained. 
Fear and hope alternately preponderated, until all 
came to the full conviction that one possessing such 
pure and elevated piety, and governed so generally by 
the motives of Christ, would not be suffered widely to 
err. Confidence in him and his measures was con- 
firmed. These results were constantly substantiated 
by the effects produced upon the multitudes who 
thronged the house. Men and women of established 



7<3 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

character experienced by this instrumentality the 
power of the gospel. The work increased in interest 
and execution, by the same means, after he had gone 
— a fact demonstrating that God had owned and put 
his seal upon them. Anxious seats had been com- 
plained of, and by the church hitherto dreaded. At 
last, though no importance was attached to the bench, 
yet it was viewed as a means by which hundreds have 
been brought to a decision in religion. Elder Knapp 
preached the gospel in its simplicity and power. He 
hesitated not to expose sin in every form, and strove 
mainly for the awakening and perfecting of the saints 
and the conversion of sinners. In his departure he 
bore abundant proofs of the confidence and respect of 
the pastor, the church, and the community, and was 
commended to the churches as one who had given 
evidence of being designated by the great Head of the 
church to the work of an evangelist. 

From New Bedford, Mr. Knapp went to Provi- 
dence, on the 19th of September, to the help of Rev. 
John Dowling, D. D., where it is thought over four 
hundred were led to Christ. It was while in Provi- 
dence that he was prosecuted for referring to the char- 
acter of an individual who had disturbed the meeting. 
The action served to call attention to him, and induced 
Dr. Dowling to give this wholesome advice, which is 
worthy of general acceptance : "Do not distract his 
mind by telliiig him any of the floating gossip with 
which probably your city will be filled during his 
stay among you. Tell him nothing which you may 
hear, except what may have a tendency to strengthen 
Ms hands and encourage his heart in the work in 



MR. KNAPP IN BOSTON. 7 1 

which he is engaged? — I am convinced that but 
few men live so near to God, and possess so much 
of all that is excellent in the Christian character, as 
brother Knapp. May the Lord help me and all my 
ministering brethren to drink as deep into the spirit 
of Christ, and hold as sweet communion with God, as 
that dear brother ! " Rev. T. C. Jameson, who within 
ten weeks baptized one hundred and twelve converts, 
added his testimony to the fervor and power of this 
man of God. In Providence there was determined 
opposition to his efforts, on the part of several distin- 
guished ministers. On the other hand, a document, 
speaking of him in the highest praise, was signed by 
over three thousand individuals, and forwarded to 
Boston, where an effort was being made to destroy his 
influence. On or about the ist of January, 1842, he 
began his labors with the First Church, Rev. Rollin 
H. Neale, pastor, and preached there in the afternoon, 
in the evening at Baldwin Place, Rev. Baron Stow, pas- 
tor. On Monday, January 9, Mr. Knapp commenced 
at Bowdoin Square Church, where he preached both 
afternoon and evening. It was while here that he 
met his fiercest oppositions. Mobs gathered about 
Bowdoin Square as they gathered in the olden time 
about the synagogue in Lystra, and would have stoned 
Jacob Knapp, and have dragged him through the city, 
as the Jews persuaded the people of Lystra to do unto 
the apostle to the Gentiles. Never did chieftain bear 
himself more bravely, never did martyr walk more in 
humble reliance upon the promises of a covenant- 
keeping God, than did this fearless preacher. Citi- 
zens were stirred by his appeal and awed by his 



p MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

sublime courage. William Ellery Charming said, 
concerning him, " Let the minister alone ; a man who 
can stir Boston like that will do good." 

Day after clay the excitement grew more fierce and 
intense. At length it was reported throughout the 
city that Mayor Chapman had said that the preacher 
was imprudent, and might take the consequences of 
his own conduct. Immediately Rev. William Hague, 
though not a supporter of his measures, called upon 
the mayor, and informed him of the report, saying 
that the occasion made its appeal to every lover 
of religious liberty, and in such an emergency he 
should feel it to be his duty to stand beside the 
preacher, and share the consequences. The mayor 
replied, " Sir, the report is not true, and all the power 
I have at my command shall be concentrated at Bow- 
doin Square to-night in defence of freedom of speech." 
The crowds were dispersed. 

To the honor of the secular press be it said that 
with united voice they sustained the action of the 
mayor, and supported the ambassador of Christ 
through the terrible ordeal. 

There was on hesitation on the part of his friends. 
The church at Baldwin Place unanimously invited 
Mr. Knapp to preach in their meeting-house. The 
tide continued to flow in, and indications of the divine 
approval abounded. The spiritual strength of Mr. 
Knapp seemed literally renewed. He fired no blank 
cartridges, but delivered broadsides at close range into 
the ranks of the foe. The opposition roused him and 
encouraged him. The attendance upon theatres waned, 
that upon churches increased. On February 9, 1842, 



THE WORK GOES ON. 73 

the " Reflector" says, " It is our privilege to do some- 
thing more than merely report progress. The work 
has now attained to a degree of prevalence and power 
that renders it utterly impossible for us to convey to 
our more distant readers an adequate conception of 
what God is permitting his people to witness and 
enjoy in Boston. Every day brings to light facts and 
scenes of the most thrilling interest. Among the 
converts, which now amount to hundreds, there are 
persons from every class and of every description of 
moral character — old men with thin and silvered locks, 
with deeply-furrowed cheeks, and voices tremulous 
and feeble, who were long since given up by their 
friends as hopeless cases, are, like little children, pray- 
ing and weeping, and talking of the infinitude of God's 
mercy and the love of Christ ; and young men glowing 
with energy and ambition, strong with health and 
hope, are proclaiming, with apostolic fervor, the 
truths which to some are a stumbling-block, and to 
others foolishness ; children are in many instances 
rejoicing over their parents' conversion, and in many 
others, parents are blessing God for the conversion of 
their children. A family in which father and mother 
and five adult children were converted were led to 
Christ through the instrumentality of a single young 
lady. Her importunity led them to the meetings ; her 
kind and correct endeavors dissuaded them from drop- 
ping the subject or avoiding the influence which was 
now creeping over them. She rested not till God and 
conscience had done their work, and the souls she 
loved were loved of Heaven. 

" On Tuesday evening of last week, brother Knapp 
4 



-.1 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

made * Universalism ' the theme of his discourse, and 
for two hours and a half held a vast and crowded 
auditory in almost breathless silence, while he tore up 
the foundations of the system, and scattered the whole 
fabric to the winds. Never did we hear such an array 
ot facts — authentic, astounding, withering facts. We 
thought that even his Satanic Majesty himself, had he 
appeared there as a Universalist, must have quailed 
under them, and hung his head in shame. " 

A young man, a member of Mr. Skinner's congre- 
gation, led by curiosity, found his way to Baldwin 
Place. Strong in the faith of Universalism, he lis- 
tened with candor, as one inquiring after truth ; and 
the result was, that Mr. Knapp swept away every ves- 
tige of his Universalism, and, to use his own language, 
" took away every shingle and clapboard of the build- 
ing — left nothing but the falling rafters, exposing his 
naked soul to the peltings of the pitiless storm." The 
revival was characterized by the apparent genuineness 
of the conversions. The converts exhibited a clear 
understanding of the evil of sin, the holiness of God's 
laws, the doctrine of justification by faith, and the 
necessity of entire consecration to God — topics on 
which Mr. Knapp dwelt with great frequency and 
power. Though some of the ministers treated Mr. 
Knapp coolly, the majority of the churches were heart 
and soul with him. 

On the first Sabbath in February, forty-two united 
with the First Church, fourteen with Bowdoin Square, 
nineteen with Baldwin Place, and twenty-two with 
Tremont Street. 

On March 2 this announcement is made under the 



THE STYLE OF THE PREACHER. 75 

head of " Theatres : " " The friends of morality and 
religion will rejoice to learn that the great theatre of 
Boston, the Tremont, is closed, and that noble granite 
edifice is offered for sale, and is likely to be converted 
into a house of worship. At the conclusion of a late 
entertainment, the manager announced that the thea- 
tre would be closed, and stated that within the last 
three months they had lost ten thousand dollars by 
keeping it open." The rush was in a different direc- 
tion. The churches were thronged, and Mr. Knapp 
went from place to place, like a general on the field 
of battle, giving aid where needed. A writer in the 
"New York Evangelist" says of him, " He preaches 
in his own style, saying some things that are not in 
good taste, yet no doubt doing execution." A pro- 
fessor in one of our theological schools attended upon 
his preaching a whole Sabbath since he has been 
here, and on being asked his opinion, replied, " He is 
a man of genius and power, and though his preaching 
is not always in good taste, yet no thief, or profane 
swearer, or drunkard, or adulterer, can sit and listen 
to him a great while without feeling that the constable 
is after him." 

The work goes on in increasing power. New and 
striking cases of conviction are daily occurring among 
persons of every faith, and class, and character ; 
wholesale dealers in ardent spirits have yielded to the 
spirit of God, and abandoned the cursed traffic. A 
large distiller was found beside a vender among the 
inquirers. Baptisms are occurring in the different 
churches every Sabbath, and the work is spreading 
through the commonwealth. March 9 the " Puritan" 



76 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

has taken sides against Mr. Knapp, and three eminent 
divines of the straitest sect declare " the sentiments of 
Mr. Knapp are substantially sound, so far as they go, 
but his violation of good taste is the great secret of 
his notoriety." 

The ''Reflector" speaks of Sabbath, March 6, as 
furnishing a scene upon which angels would look with 
delight. " Picture to yourself a crowded sanctuary, 
with its long centre aisle occupied from end to end 
with a dense double column of ' new recruits ' to the 
army, fighting under the banners of our King, and 
then receiving, one after another, the significant pledge 
of Christian affection, and passing round, one to the 
right hand and another to the left, until the last young 
soldier was greeted, and all duly enrolled with the 
sacramental host of God's elect. The work has been 
more powerful in the First Church, during the last 
week, than at any time before. It seems as if not a 
single soul among them all was to be left in a state of 
unreconciliation to God. Baptisms reported: First 
Church, fifty-eight ; Baldwin Place, fifty-two ; Free 
Church, forty ; Bowdoin Square, twenty-seven ; Fed- 
eral Street, twenty-eight ; Boylston Street, twenty- 
four ; Charles Street, six ; Independent, nineteen. 
Notwithstanding these results, the " New England 
Puritan" ridicules the labors of Mr. Knapp, saying, 
" The operations after the sermons are more objec- 
tionable than anything in the sermons themselves." 
Calling forward to the anxious seat is characterized 
by declaring that " the congregation is put into a 
rambling state and some fifteen minutes of confusion." 
" Against such machinery, so productive of wholesale 



CLOSING LABORS IN BOSTON. 77 

delusion, so destructive to the modesty becoming wo- 
men and children, and so calculated to lead all im- 
penitent men to the conclusion that religion is promoted 
by trick and artifice, we feel bound to enter our solemn 
protest ; " and all this because Mr. Knapp, at the con- 
clusion of the sermon, was accustomed to come down 
from the pulpit and exhort the impenitent to come to 
Christ, and converts to tell what God had done for 
their souls. The third week of March closed his labors 
in Boston, with the blessings of thousands ready to 
perish resting upon him, and following him to Lowell, 
his next field of labor. 

In accordance with the request of the leading citi- 
zens of Boston, he repeated the Temperance Sermon 
in Marlboro' Chapel, which, two years before, in Balti- 
more, led to the reformation of J. H. W. Hawkins, 
and initiated the Washingtonian reform. At the con- 
clusion of the address, all who had signed the total 
abstinence pledge, or were determined to sign it, 
were asked to rise ; and the whole of that immense 
assemblage sprang to their feet. It was a thrilling 
scene, and proved the potency of the religion of 
Christ to promote a spirit of reform. 

The time of his sojourn drew to a close. In the 
" Reflector " of March 23 there was a description of 
the closing scenes. " The mornings of Thursday and 
Friday, March 17 and 18, were occupied with meet- 
ings devoted to expressions of gratitude for the distin- 
guishing mercies of Heaven. These meetings were 
full of interest. Thursday evening he preached to 
converts in Bowdoin Square. Friday afternoon he 
preached to Christians at Baldwin Place ; and though 



^S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

it was a week day, and in the hurry of spring, such 
was the enthusiasm, that every standing place in the 
house was taken, and multitudes went away. In the 
evening he preached to the impenitent at Bowdoin 
Square, and the solemn service was concluded with 
the parting and farewell of those parties who had 
lahored with him." 

The preceding statements help to an understanding 
of the letter written by the evangelist after the lapse 
of nearly a quarter of a century. " My first acquaint- 
ance with Deacon Timothy Gilbert was in the close 
of 1 841 and the beginning of 1842. I boarded in his 
family a portion of the three months' campaign in that 
city, during which thousands were converted to God, 
and the Tremont Theatre was wound up and soon 
converted into a place of divine worship. God, 
through my agency, wound up the theatre, and 
through the agency of brother Gilbert, converted it 
into a house of worship. He entered into the great 
and never-to-be-forgotten work of divine grace with all 
his powers of body and mind. For many days he 
arose in the morning before daylight, harnessed his 
horse and buggy, and took me to South Boston, where 
I found a crowded house waiting with profound still- 
ness and solemnity to hear the word of life (for the 
religious interest in Boston then was such as to fill any 
house at any hour of the night). This dear, lamented 
brother would then accompany me, at ten o'clock 
A. M., to the anxious room, where we labored with 
great and overwhelming interest for two hours ; then 
again I preached at two o'clock P. M., and again at 
half past seven P. M., and wound up, at ten o'clock 



LETTER CONCERNING DEACON GILBERT. 79 

P. M., with a precious inquiry meeting, and brother 
Gilbert was the most of the time weeping and praying 
by my side, ready to every good word and work. 

"At one time he palled all of his workmen together 
in his parlor, and requested me to address them upon 
the necessity of securing the salvation of their souls. 
But I soon found that his appeals were more powerful 
than mine. He told them that he did not consider the 
capital in his possession his. It all belonged to God, 
and he was carrying on business for God and the good 
of the world, and he wished them all to attend the 
meetings and secure the salvation of their souls, and 
if any of them were in want of anything, to call upon 
him and their wants should be supplied. All were 
deeply affected, and some of them were speedily con- 
verted to God. 

" In the winter of i860, when laboring in Boston, I 
was made a welcome inmate of his family, both by 
himself and by his kind-hearted wife. At this time I 
found him the same warm-hearted Christian, governed, 
as formerly, by religious principles, regardless of pub- 
lic opinion, only desirous to know his Master's will, 
and ready to do it. At this time I baptized his two 
daughters, and we enjoyed many sweet and heavenly 
interviews together. But I perceived that the eighteen 
years which had intervened since our former associa- 
tion in the labors of the kingdom, had produced a 
marked change in my old friend, as was the case with 
Deacon William Hill, and many others. The vigor 
of his physical constitution was diminished, and his 
powers of endurance were not what they had been. 
The vast amount of his business, the embarrassed 



So MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

condition of his finances, and the great responsibilities 
which rested upon him, seemed too much for him 
longer to endure, and I was not surprised when the 
sad tidings reached my western home, that Deacon 
Timothy Gilbert was no more. Of him it may be 
said. ' Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord ; 
they rest from their labors, and their works do follow 
them.' " 

So much for the revival. Through that interesting 
period Timothy Gilbert was at the front. When mobs 
assailed them, he bared his head to the storm, and 
gloried in the reproach of Christ. He procured an 
elegant engraving of Mr. Knapp. He nursed him as 
he would a child when worn down with fatigue. 
That quiet home was the place to rest and recuperate. 
Other ministers and evangelists can testify to the 
revivifying influence exerted there. Mr. Gilbert was 
fond of talking about Mr. Knapp. When asked as to 
wdierein lay the power of Mr. Knapp, he replied in 
his nearness to God, in his faith, in his ability in the 
pulpit, and in his generalship. It was Mr. Gilbert's 
custom to take down the texts, and to give a brief 
sketch of the sermon. It is possible to follow Mr. 
Knapp through the three months by these memoran- 
da, to tell the texts used, and discover indications of 
the rise and growth of the interest. A description 
of Mr. Knapp as a preacher, and a report of one of his 
sermons, are preserved among his papers. In this 
description the secret of the evangelist's power is 
said to lie in the narrative nature of his discourses, and 
in the dramatic dress in which they are frequently 
clothed. He often introduced real or imaginary char- 



SKETCH OF MR. KNAPP S SERMON. 51 

acters, acting and speaking in a manner appropriate to 
each. The text was in Acts xiii. 40, 41 : " Beware, 
therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of 
in the prophets : Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and 
perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which 
ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it 
unto you." After some introductory remarks upon the 
danger and folly of despising the warnings and the 
operation of the Spirit of God, especially at the present 
time, when they are so remarkably manifest, he pro- 
ceeded to specify instances of this great sin, and of its 
consequences, cited from the Old Testament. He 
began with Moses in Egypt, who showed his divine 
commission to Pharaoh, in the miracles he performed 
and in the judgments brought upomthe land by Pha- 
raoh's despising them, and refusing to liberate the He- 
brews, whom he kept as slaves. This great monarch, 
said he, beheld and despised, wondered and perished. 
He also saw the Red Sea miraculously divide for their 
passage, and he, no doubt, " wondered" at so astonish- 
ing an event ; but he " despised and perished ; " he and 
his armies were overwhelmed and drowned in its 
waters. The preacher here introduced, in his peculiar 
manner, by way of parenthesis, the observation that 
Moses was an abolitionist. The Hebrews were slaves 
in Egypt, and he, by command of God, undertook to 
restore their freedom, to abolish their slavery, and to 
raise them to the rank of a flourishing and independent 
nation. In this, after great opposition, difficulty, and 
suffering, he finally, under God, succeeded. 

He next alluded to the destruction of Sodom. Lot 
warned the wicked inhabitants of the consequences of 

A * 



^2 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

their groat sins. He finally predicted the destruction 
of the city and all the inhabitants, on a certain day, 
by lire and brimstone. They only laughed at the pre- 
diction. They called him a fool and fanatic. The 
Universalists gathered around him, and asked him if 
" he thought a kind and merciful God would destroy 
a whole city, men, women, and innocent children, in 
so barbarous a manner? No; they had a better 
opinion of God. He was not such a cruel, malicious, 
unmerciful being, delighting in the misery and ruin of 
the children he created." On the morning of the ap- 
pointed day the sun rose in all his beauty and splendor ; 
there was not a cloud to be seen in the whole heavens. 
The air was pure and serene, and there was never a 
fairer prospect of an uncommonly fine day. "Ah," 
said they to Lot, " what do you think of this? Does 
this look like a storm of fire and brimstone? You see 
now what nonsense you have been telling us." They 
"despised" him and his preaching. But by and by 
the air began to change, and became impure, the sky 
was overcast, the sun was obscured, and the heavens 
gathered blackness. These despisers began to " won- 
der ; " they became alarmed. At length the thunder- 
ings and the lightnings commenced, and torrents of 
fire and brimstone were poured down upon this wicked 
and devoted city. Every soul perished, except Lot 
and his family, who departed in season to escape. 
Thus these sinful and depraved unbelievers " despised, 
and wondered, and perished." 

Allusion was made to Noah and the building of the 
ark. He proclaimed the coining flood, and warned 
the people to prepare for it. He set an example by 



SKETCH OF MR. KNAPP's SERMON. 83 

beginning to build an ark, and during the many years 
of his labor upon it, he ceased not to warn and advise 
all around him. But they would not believe him. 
They would, however, collect together, and look on, 
and wonder, and despise, and hold long conversations 
together. One would say, " Our neighbor, Noah, is a 
very good, kind, well-meaning man, and a good citizen, 
and it is a pity he should be led away by such strange 
notions/' " Yes," said another, " he means well ; he 
is pious, sincere, and benevolent, and talks to us, no 
doubt, in good faith ; but he has got a strange kink in 
his head, and there is no getting it out of him. I'm 
afraid he will ruin himself in building this great, use- 
less ship." " So am I," said a third ; " he is not only 
honest and pious, but a man of excellent sense, and 
very shrewd in everything but this. But he is per- 
fectly deranged about this bugbear of a flood, and 
I am afraid he will soon become perfectly insane. 
He is evidently a monomaniac, if nothing worse." 
"What a strange, inconsistent notion it is," said a 
fourth, " to think that God, just as he has got his new 
world well peopled, after so many years, will now 
destroy all he has done, render all his labor useless, 
and be obliged to begin again. No ; God understands, 
and contrives, and foresees, better than all this." 
"Yes," said a fifth, "our neighbor is, in the main, a 
very good kind of a man, and I pity him. But I am 
afraid that, by this absurd fanaticism, he will not only 
injure himself, but that he will make hundreds of 
others equally insane, rendering them unhappy in 
themselves, and useless, if not burdensome, to their 
families, and to the community. I think it might be 



S4 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Well to collect a mob in the night, set fire to his use- 
less ark. and drive him away from this part of the 
country. " Thus they beheld, and despised, and won- 
dered, till the flood came — till the predictions of Xoah 
were fulfilled, and the unbelieving people, were all 
drowned. 

These instances, with the descriptions and expres- 
sions, and novel and unexpected remarks, fixed the 
attention of a crowded audience through a long dis- 
course. The application and conclusion were ad- 
dressed to the conscience and the feelings, in reference 
to what he considered the wonderful operations of 
God then going on in the city. He warned all pres- 
ent not to oppose the work. He invited them to join 
in it, to repent and be converted, and save their own 
souls. But if they would not do this, let them not 
prevent others. " For if this counsel, or this work, be 
of men, it will come to nought ; but if it be of God, 
ye cannot overthrow it ; lest haply ye be found even 
to fight against God." " Beware, therefore, lest that 
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets : 
Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." 

Such preaching did good then, and will do good 
now. It brings out before the eye the pictures God's 
own hand had hung along the walls of the historic 
temple, for the instruction and guidance of the race. 
It made the word of God a living verily. There was 
no quibbling among the rank and file. The ministers 
vied with each other in helping forward the work. 
The church, as one man, sustained, by their presence, 
cooperation, and influence, the honored chieftain who 
went forth relying upon the promises of Jehovah. 



RESULT OF MR. KNAPP's LABORS. 85 

As a result, all classes were moved. Each one worked 
over against his own house. Merchants worked with 
merchants, young men with young men, women of 
position with women of position. The Christian tree 
bent its branches downward, and spread its branches 
outward, and covered with its shadow vast multitudes. 
The bold and austere manner of the preacher, the 
terrible and scathing power used in exposing Uni- 
versalism and kindred errors, his oddities, and yet 
remarkable flights of soul-stirring and soul-awing 
oratory, attracted immense multitudes, while the man- 
ner in w T hich he was sustained by preacher and lay- 
man, the way they said c Amen ' to what was said and 
done, added to the sword he wielded, the weight and 
the authority of the entire church. 

This was a most wonderful period in denomination- 
al history. The laity that upheld the hands of the 
ministry were unsurpassed in character, in talent, and 
in devotion. Every church was strong, because each 
church might, like the Sultan of the East, point to 
her stalwart men as the walls of her defence and 
the implements of conquest. It was at this period 
Daniel Safford introduced Rev. E. N. Kirk, D. D., 
to Boston. It was a remarkable happen-so, even if it 
were a happen-so, that Mr. Kirk followed Mr. Knapp 
so frequently. One was the John the Baptist, preach- 
ing repentance, and the other was the reaper. One 
was the blacksmith, the other the silversmith. Said 
Dr. Kirk, " I delighted to follow Mr. Knapp, because 
he stirred the conscience, and made a great number 
ready to listen to the truth, presented in a milder 
form. They were too mad to hear him, they were 



S6 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

under too deep conviction to rest content ; so many 
gladly came to listen to me who might have gone, 
unmoved, to perdition, had it not been for the sledge- 
hammer style of Mr. Knapp." For this reason he 
followed him, in Baltimore, in New Haven, and in 
Boston. 

From this most delightful period of revival interest 
we must turn to a scene of conflict, which found its 
origin in the awakened conscience of the lovers of 
Christ. The life of Timothy Gilbert was interlaced 
with the life of the world in many ways. Follow the 
thread where you will, and it enables you to confront 
sterling worth, incorruptible honesty, and an un- 
flinching adherence to what he deemed right towards 
God and man. The man who defended revivals, and 
who was the right-hand man of the evangelist, de- 
fended the slave, and for many years bore the burden 
and heat of the conflict. 



8 7 



CHAPTER VI. 

ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION IN THE CHURCH. THE 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MISSION BOARD AT BALTI- 
MORE. EXCITING DISCUSSION. LETTER OF BARON 

STOW. ORGANIZATION OF THE PROVISIONAL COM- 
MITTEE. TIMOTHY GILBERT TREASURER. 

The slavery agitation in the Mission Boards of our 
large societies found an origin ina " Communication 
from a Committee of the Baptist Ministers in and near 
London, to the Board of the General Convention of 
the Baptist Denomination for Foreign Missions, on 
the Subject of Negro Slavery." 

This communication was referred by the Board to a 
committee, consisting of the corresponding secretary 
and Messrs. Knowles and Stow. In their report, they 
express their " satisfaction with the spirit of Christian 
affection, respect, and candor which the communica- 
tion breathes. They received it as a pleasing omen 
of a more intimate correspondence and a more en- 
deared fellowship with our Baptist brethren in Great 
Britain. The committee, however, are unanimously 
of opinion that as a Board, and as members of the 
General Convention, associated for the exclusive pur- 
pose of sending the gospel to the heathen, and to other 
benighted men not belonging to our own country, we 
are precluded by our constitution from taking part in 



SS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

the discussion of the subject proposed in the said com- 
munication." 

The resolution touching this question reads : " Re- 
solved, — That, while, as they trust, their love of free- 
dom, and their desire for the happiness of all men, 
are not less strong and sincere than those of the Brit- 
ish brethren, they cannot, as a Board, interfere with a 
subject that is not among the objects for which the 
Convention and the Board were formed." 

The letter was dated September i, 1834, and in a bold 
and fearless manner stated in full the peculiar difficul- 
ties, which cannot be fully understood by persons in 
other countries. The letter proceeds to explain the 
difference between the political organization of the 
United States and that of England, and this difference 
makes it impossible to adopt a course similar to that 
which the British Parliament have adopted in refer- 
ence to slavery in the West Indies : " This country is 
not one state with an unrestricted legislature, but a 
confederacy of states united by a constitution, in which 
certain powers are granted to the national govern- 
ment, and all other powers are reserved by the states. 
Among these reserved - powers is the regulation of 
slavery. Congress has no power to interfere with the 
slaves in the respective states-, and an act of Con- 
gress to emancipate the slaves in those states would 
be as wholly null and void as an act of the British 
Parliament for the same purpose. . . . This view 
of the case exonerates the nation as such, and the 
states in which no slaves are found, from the charge 
of upholding slavery. It is due, moreover, to the 
republic to remember that slavery was introduced into 



REPLY OF THE COMMITTEE. 89 

this country long before the colonies became inde- 
pendent states. The slave-trade was encouraged by 
the government of Great Britain, and slaves were 
brought into the colonies against the wishes of the 
colonists and the repeated acts of some of the colonial 
legislatures. These acts were negatived by the King 
of England, and in the Declaration of Independence, 
as originally drawn by Mr. Jefferson, it was stated, 
among the grievances which produced the revolution, 
that the King of England had steadily resisted the 
efforts of the colonists to prevent the introduction of 
slaves. Soon after the revolution, several of the states 
took measures to free themselves from slavery. In 
1787, Congress adopted an act, by which it was pro- 
vided that slavery should never be permitted in any of 
the states to be formed in the immense territory north- 
west of the Ohio, in which territory the great states 
of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have since been formed. 
There are now thirteen states, out of twenty-four, in 
which slavery may be said to be extinct. Maryland 
is taking measures to free herself from slavery. Ken- 
tucky and Virginia will, it is believed, follow the 
example. We state these facts to show that the re- 
public did not originate slavery here, and that she has 
done much to remove it altogether from her bosom. 
She took measures, earlier than any other country, for 
the suppression of the slave-trade, and she is now 
zealously laboring to accomplish the entire extinction 
of that abominable traffic. 

" Since, then, from the character of our political 
institutions, the emancipation of the slaves is impos- 
sible, except with the free consent of the masters, it is 



90 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

necessary to approach them with calm and affectionate 
arguments." It was claimed that slaveholders were 
better acquainted with slavery than others ; that multi- 
tudes were in favor of its extinction, while some " are 
not convinced that slavery is wrong in principle, just 
as many good men in England, half a century since, 
believed the slave-trade to be just and right." The 
number and character of the two millions of slaves, 
scattered over a part of the Union, with no large 
military force to overawe them, and with no provis- 
ions to care for the young, the feeble, and the aged, 
made this subject of emancipation a problem difficult 
of solution, and, " we presume that the people of Eng- 
land would feel somewhat differently on the subject of 
emancipation, if the slaves were among themselves, 
and the perils of this moral volcano were constantly 
impending over their own heads." 

Mention is made of the good feeling existing among 
the " multiplying thousands of Baptists throughout the 
land," of their confidence in their love for Christ, of 
the liberality and zeal characterizing their southern 
brethren, and of the impossibility of reaching the con- 
clusion that it would be right to use language or adopt 
measures which might tend to break the ties that unite 
them to us in our General Convention, and in numerous 
other benevolent societies, and to array brother against 
brother, church against church, and association against 
association, in a contest about slavery. 

These reasons induced the Board of Missions to 
decline an interference with the subject of slavery. 
" It ought to be discussed at all proper times, and in 
all suitable modes. We believe that the progress of 



MR. MANN OPPOSED TO ANTI-SLAVERY. 91 

public opinion in reference to slavery is very rapid, 
and we are quite sure that it cannot be accelerated by 
any interference which our southern brethren would 
regard as an invasion of their political rights, or as an 
impeachment of their Christian character." 

What an advanced scout is to an army, this let- 
ter was to the anti-slavery conflict, which began as 
the sighing of a zephyr, which grew into a tornado 
that has stranded the navies of our hope, and lev- 
elled in the dust the monuments of our pride. The 
church was offered the front of the conflict. Right 
or wrong, she judged it to be her duty to hold her 
opinions on the subject of slavery in abeyance to the 
paramount interests of the soul. Here was a society 
engaged in promoting the spread of the gospel 
throughout the world. Should the Board stop because 
of a difference of opinion regarding the rights of 
man? "Christ and his church habitually regarded 
man as an immortal being ; and so absorbing was the 
thought of his eternal destiny, that they could not stop 
to discuss the minor questions of the hour." This 
was the argument. Infidels have denounced both the 
argument and its advocates ; and because ministers 
and churches have sheltered themselves behind the 
claims of missions and the requirements of the work, 
Christianity has been ridiculed. But it should not be 
overlooked that the reproach heaped upon the church 
attests its high character and position. Horace Mann 
won fame as an abolitionist, and as a defender of the 
rights of human nature. Yet, ten years later, because, 
forsooth, his little scheme of education was imperilled 
by the conduct of Rev. S. J. May, in regard to abo- 



Cp MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

litionism. he did not hesitate to write him,* when a 
single pupil had left the school, " The obvious feeling 
was. that it was a pity that theoretical anti-slavery 
should prove to be practical anti-education, by de- 
priving your school of a valuable pupil, and yourself, 
to some extent, of the respect of an influential citizen." 
Why did not infidels attack this position? The church 
lost not only one. but oftentimes hundreds, because of 
its adherence to the rights of man ; and yet because 
some ministers were silent, rather than promote dis- 
sension, there was no language bad enough to ex- 
press the condemnation felt towards them by the 
leaders of the abolition movement. The Board of 
Missions cannot be compared to the Board of Educa- 
tion in Massachusetts, either in the objects it strives to 
promote, or the cause it endeavors to serve. 

Said Mr. Mann, " I confess myself one of those who 
hold the maxim to be a damnable one, that ' our actions 
are our own, while the consequences belong to God.' 
We cannot separate the action from the consequence, 
and therefore the latter is as much our own as the 
former." Mr. May, in his reply, claimed that some of 
the pupils were abolitionists when they came, or were 
made so by Father Peirce. To this Mr. Mann re- 
plies, " Father Peirce had no right to make them so, 
any more than he had to make them Unitarians, or 
Bank or anti-Bank in their politics." In time Mr. 
May is advertised to be one of the lecturers of an 
abolition course about to be delivered in Boston. 
About this, Mr. Mann writes, "Every friend of yours, 
and of the cause with which you hold so important a 

* Life of Horace Mann, pp. 169, 170. 



MR. MANNS OPPOSITION CONTINUED. 93 

connection, is pained beyond measure at this an- 
nunciation. Did you not tell me, again and again, 
that if the public would let you alone, in regard to 
your abolition views, you thought you could get along 
well enough with your friends ? But how can you ex- 
pect that the public will let you alone, if they find you, 
every term, making abolition speeches or delivering 
abolition lectures, and exhibiting yourself as a cham- 
pion of the cause in a way and on occasions which so 
many will deem offensive ? You must not mistake my 
motives ; and if you think I am speaking too plainly, 
you must pardon it for the zeal I have in the cause." * 
Those who are familiar with the earnest remon- 
strances of valued Christian friends, when they have 
felt the interests of souls were imperilled by intro- 
ducing political questions into the pulpit, will be bet- 
ter able to make apologies for them. The churches 
did not indorse the position of the Board of Missions. 
Professor J. D. Knowles, on his return from New York, 
where he became infected with the disease which hur- 
ried him to a premature grave, declared his sorrow 
that he had ever written this letter of reply to the 
English Baptists, as it made him appear to be what he 
was not — the defender of human slavery. This was in 
1838. Horace Mann's letters were written in 1843, 
when the nation was rocking with agitation. It would 
repay perusal could we present in detail the honor- 
able part the church bore in the anti-slavery reform. 
The Mission Board was formed in May, 18 14, and 
commenced operations with two missionaries in the 
field, providentially thrown upon their hands. It is 
known that Judson and Rice sailed for India as mis- 
* Life of Horace Mann, p. 172. 



94 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

sionaries of the American Board. While on their 
passage they were converted to Baptist views. They 
landed upon a foreign shore without money and with- 
out friends. When the news reached America it pro- 
duced a thrill of joy in the Baptist heart. The North 
and the South joined heart and soul in the w T ork of 
the Lord. The West was then unknown. The valley 
of the Ohio and Mississippi was a terra incognita. 
The weakness of the denomination made union im- 
perative. United heart and hand, they had worked 
together until this letter came from England. The 
conscience of Christians had been aroused by the ef- 
forts made to promote emancipation views in England 
and in the West Indies. 

At this time the war began in earnest. Three years 
before, William Lloyd Garrison had commenced the 
publication of the " Liberator" in New England, where 
he claimed that " prejudices against the negro and 
freedom were more rampant than in the South." 

In 1832 he began to send forth illustrations of the 
slave-locked in the arms of his wife, being beaten by 
the overseer ; or of the poor slave, kneeling, eyes look- 
ing towards heaven, and hands clasped, saying, " Am 
I not a woman and a sister ? " The platform began to 
resound with appeals ; the pulpit sounded a trumpet 
which gave timely warning ; the church prepared for 
action. 

In 1835 a meeting was called in Ritchie Hall, Bos- 
ton, " to disapprove of all denunciation, personal cen- 
sure, and severity respecting any of our brethren who 
may speak or act differently from the wishes of the 
Board on the subject of anti-slavery." In June, 1835, 



ACTION OF CHRISTIAN ABOLITIONIS 

a letter was sent to the Board disapproving then 
tion in withholding from publication the English lette. 
and the reply. 

At this time Rev. William H. Brisbane, who after- 
wards emancipated his slaves, and became the leading 
abolitionist of his time, was a pro-slavery editor in 
Charleston, S. C, and was eager to enter into an ar- 
gument to prove that slavery was a divine institution, 
and was sanctioned by the Bible. Then, for the first 
time, the South began to be pervaded with the thought 
that the North regarded slavery as a sin against God. 
Though the Board of Missions owned the " Christian 
Index," published in Georgia, and was sanctioning 
slavery in various ways, yet at this time the northern 
religious press contained very many leading editorials, 
headed, " The Bible against Slavery." 

The policy adopted by the Missionary Board pre- 
vailed to a large extent. The " Watchman " closed 
its columns to the discussion of the question. The 
" Reflector " was started in Worcester in the year 
1838. It was designed to promote the glory of God 
and good will to man. " Fear God and give glory to 
him. All Scripture is profitable. God hath made of 
one blood all nations of men," were the inscriptions 
written upon this banner of truth. 

In a letter written by Rev. Baron Stow to the 
London Union, January 11, 1839, ne savs ? — 

" Among the obstacles in the way of the abolition 
of slavery, I might name the inhuman prejudice 
against color as the badge of servitude and debase- 
ment ; the peculiar organization of our government, 
reserving to the states the entire control of slavery 



MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

.a our own limits ; the opposition of Christians in 
il the slaveholding states to abolition, and in the free 
states to all agitation of the subject. It would not be 
difficult to show that the influence of the American 
church, at present, is the main pillar of American 
slavery. 

" But, my dear brother, God is on our side, and the 
cause will prevail. Every day it is gaining friends, 
and though less rapidly than we could wish, yet stead- 
ily and surely advancing towards the desired consum- 
mation. Still help us by your prayers and remon- 
strances, and anticipate with us the joyful day when 
republican America shall be purified of this foul and 
deadly leprosy." 

On January 6, 1841, the following address was re- 
published at the request of large numbers North and 
South. The year 1840 gave it birth, but the year 
1 841 was distinguished by the influence it exerted. 

To Southern Baptists. 

The American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention, 
holding its first session in the city of New York, on 
the 28th, 29th, and 30th of April, 1840, to the Baptist 
slaveholders of the Southern States : — 

Fathers and Brethren : We have assembled, to 
the number of one hundred and ten persons, at the 
written call of seven hundred Baptists from thirteen 
of the United States. Of this number, about four hun- 
dred are accredited ministers of Jesus Christ. 

A conviction of duty, which, we humbly conceive, 
is based upon the fear of God and the love of our 



APPEAL TO SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. 97 

fellow-men, — whether bond or free, oppressors or 
oppressed, — constrains us to submit a few thoughts 
for your special and candid consideration. In doing 
so, we appeal, with the firmest confidence, to the 
Omniscient God for the rectitude of our intentions. 
We solemnly profess a prayerful and submissive rev- 
erence for the principles of his recorded will. We 
feelingly avow a tender sympathy, not only for the 
slave, but also for you, upon many of whom slavery is 
entailed by heritage and enforced by law, while inex- 
orable habits, formed in the passive state of infancy, 
as well as universal usage, impose bonds upon your- 
selves scarcely less strong or less oppressive than the 
fetters of the slave. 

Hear us, then, with patience and kindness. It is 
our firm conviction that the whole system of American 
slavery, in theory and practice, is a violation of the 
instincts of nature, a perversion of the first principles 
of justice, and a positive transgression of the revealed 
will of God ; for man instinctively seeks happiness 
and repels outrage, while slavery compels him to fore- 
go the former and endure the latter, for himself and 
his posterity, until the end of time. Justice, in its 
very nature, assumes the existence of free moral 
agents, mutually bound by established principles, and 
acting towards each other with perfect reciprocity. 
We do not speak of justice towards a " chattel per- 
sonal," a horse, or a swine. But the statutes of the 
South pronounce a slave a " chattel personal to all 
intents and purposes whatsoever," and thus set him 
beyond the pale of justice, as utterly disqualified to 
assert a right and to redress a wrong. 
5 



9S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Divine revelation, as committed to Moses and ex- 
pounded by our Lord, teaches that pious self-love is 
the only proper measure of our love towards others. 
Does slavery — especially its laws which quench or 
smother in the slave the light of the mind, which tear 
from his agonized bosom the dearest objects of his 
natural affection — conform to that rule of Holy 
Writ ? 

We believe that God only has the right to take 
away the health, the wife, the children, or the life of 
men guilty of no social crime. When man, single or 
associated, uses his power for such ends, he appears 
to us to arrogate to himself the prerogatives of the 
Almighty, and to assume a responsibility under which 
an archangel would stagger. 

God, it is true, made use of the Jews to exterminate 
certain heathen tribes, and to inflict upon others a 
mild servitude, carefully defined and restricted. To 
employ this mode of punishment, or any other that he 
chose, was his unquestionable right. But where is 
the Scripture warrant to apply this special license of 
Jehovah for the extirpation of the human race at large, 
or the enslavement of any nation in particular? This 
specific direction to his oracular people is but an 
exception that confirms the general rule of his Son, 
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

The heart of the blessed Jesus was, indeed, an over- 
flowing fountain of the tenderest sympathy for human 
woe. Food, health, and life were his boon, never 
withheld when solicited ; and the gospel preached to 
the poor was the peculiar and characteristic proof of 
his being the Son of God and the Saviour of the w T orld. 



APPEAL TO SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. 99 

No evidence exists that he ever witnessed a scene of 
slavery. It is not shown that Hebrews of that day 
trafficked in human flesh. The chained coffle, the 
naked gang of the cotton-field, the exposed female 
reeking under the lash, the child torn forever from its 
mother's breaking heart, — these, and worse acts of 
slavery's tragedy, were not performed, so far as his- 
tory speaks, before the face of Jesus. But his warmest, 
almost his only burst of indignation, is against those 
who devoured the helpless widow's substance, and, 
for a pretence, made long prayers and liberal contri- 
butions to the cause of God. 

His itinerant, inspired followers were too busy in 
draining off the universal deluge of idolatry, explain- 
ing the nature of the one living God, and establishing 
the claims of Jesus as the true Messiah, to define, or 
to condemn, in form, every species and variety of 
crime, in every age, that hell, fruitful of inventions, 
might suggest and fallen human nature perpetrate. 
Hence, horse-racing, gambling, piracy, the rum traffic, 
and the African and American slave-trade, remain un- 
graduated in the Scripture scale of human sins. Paul, 
however, exhorts the servants of heathen masters to 
respectfulness and patience, for the reason that the 
name of God be not blasphemed ; and advises them, 
while patient under bondage, to prefer freedom. He 
enjoins Christian masters to give their servants what 
is just and equal. Do the slaves of American Baptists 
obtain justice and equity? He implores his brother 
Philemon to receive again the converted fugitive, not, 
as he probably had been, the heathen vassal of a heathen 
lord, but as a beloved brother in Jesus Christ. Thus 



IOO MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

we behold, in all the Scriptures, a virtual and total 
condemnation of American slavery. 

Besides. American Calvinistic Baptists, as a whole 
denomination, have been hitherto regarded, by the 
Christian world, as responsible for the sins of Baptist 
~'.nd the sufferings of o?ie hundred thou- 
sand Baptist slaves. And if we fail, as many do, to 
testify our abhorrence of a system that allows a fellow- 
Christian to sell his brother, or his brother's wife or 
child, or to dissolve the marriage tie at pleasure, we 
see not how to escape the merited contempt of man- 
kind, the reproaches of conscience, or the displeasure 
of God. For the followers of Jesus are ordained the 
light of the world, and his zvitness of the truth until 
the end of time. 

Further, in the exhaustion of your once teeming 
soil ; the non-increase, and, in some parts, diminu- 
tion of your white population ; the depreciation of 
your staple products, and the competition of British 
enterprise in India ; the jubilee-shout of West India 
emancipation, rousing the dormant spirit of your slaves 
to assert the rights of man ; your intrinsic incapacity 7 
of self-defence in case of foreign aggression ; your con- 
stant exposure to servile insurrection and massacre ; 
and in the general reprobation of republican slavery 
throughout the rest of the civilized and Christian 
world, — we behold indications that God attests, by 
earthly signs, the precept of his heavenly oracles, to 
" let the oppressed go free." 

Again : if you have heard us thus far with candor, 
you may perhaps inquire, ; - What would you have us 
do?" We answer, "At once confess before heaven 



APPEAL TO SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. IOI 

and earth the sinfulness of holding slaves ; admit it to 
be not only a misfortune, but a crime ; remonstrate 
against laws that bind the system on you ; petition for 
the guarantee, to all, of " natural and inalienable 
rights." If your remonstrance and prayers to man 
are disregarded, cast yourself on the God of provi- 
dence and justice ; forsake, like Abraham, your father- 
land, and carry your children and your households to 
the vast asylum of our prairies and our wilderness, 
where our Father in heaven has bidden our mother 
earth to open her exuberant breast for the nourish- 
ment of many sons. 

Finally, — if you should (which Heaven avert!) re- 
main deaf to the voice of warning and entreaty ; if 
you still cling to the power-maintained privilege of 
living on unpaid toil, and of claiming as property the 
image of God which Jesus bought with precious blood, 
— we solemnly declare, as we fear the Lord, that we 
cannot and we dare not recognize you as consistent 
brethren in Christ ; we cannot join in partial, selfish 
prayers, that the groans of the slave may be unheard ; 
we cannot hear preaching which makes God the au- 
thor and approver of human misery and vassalage ; 
and we cannot, at the Lord's table, cordially take that 
as a brother's hand, which plies the scourge on wo- 
man's naked flesh, which thrusts a gag into the 
mouth of man, which rivets fetters on the innocent, 
and which shuts up the Bible from human eyes. We 
deplore your condition ; we pray for your deliverance ; 
and God forbid that we should ever sin against him 
by ceasing so to pray. 



102 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The war of words now began between the two con- 
tending parties. Document met document, and letter 
met letter. Every newspaper was full of " Our own 
Views. " It had been a period of intense excitement 
for years. Mob law took the place of civil law, and 
presses which could not be intimidated by threats, and 
editors that could not be silenced by argument, were 
ruthlessly assailed. 

On one side stood Elon Galusha, Nathaniel Colver, 
Timothy Gilbert, and others like them ; on the other 
stood Richard Fuller, J. B. Jeter, and others as fear- 
less and as brave. 

In 1 84 1 the effort was made to drop Elon Galusha' s 
name from the Board of Missions. It was successful. 
Joseph Sturge, of London, commissioned with an ad- 
dress to the President of the United States, signed by 
Thomas Clarkson, and written " in behalf of the mil- 
lions of our fellow-citizens held in bondage," on his 
way from a slave pen, stopped to look in upon the 
Triennial Convention, and thus, in a letter to a slave- 
trader writes : "In passing from the premises we 
looked in upon the Convention of the Baptists of the 
United States, when in session in the city of Balti- 
more, where I found slaveholding ministers of high 
rank in the church, urging successfully the exclusion 
from the Missionary Board of that society of all those 
who, in principle and practice, were known to be de- 
cided abolitionists ; and the results of their efforts sat- 
isfied me that the darkest picture of slavery is not to 
be found in the jail of the slave-trader, but rather in a 
convention of professed ministers of the gospel of 
Christ, expelling from the Board of the society, formed 



ADDRESS OF MR. GALUSHA. IO3 

to enlighten the heathen of other nations, all who con- 
sistently labor for the overthrow of a system which 
denies a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures to near 
three millions of heathen at home." 

Rev. Elon Galusha, in his letter to Rev. R. Fuller, 
Beaufort, S. C, had taken the boldest anti-slavery 
position, and entered into the defence of the slave in 
a manner so fearless, so kind, so eloquent that it won 
troops of friends to his cause, and carried dismay to 
the ranks of the foe. There were hundreds in the 
Missionary Society that stood by his side. Mr. Sturge 
overlooked this fact. It was common thus to cast re- 
proach upon the church, and to forget that there were 
more than seven thousand who never bowed the knee 
to Baal. The lives of men like Gilbert, Colver, Galu- 
sha, and a host of others, prove this. The history of 
the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention proves 
it. The piles of anti-slavery documents establish the 
fact. The denominational press proclaims it with 
trumpet tone. 

u You assure us that you are content to appeal to 
God in justification of slavery," said Mr. Galusha. 
" You should remember that this whole nation, Chris- 
tians, ministers and all, once unitedly appealed to God 
for the truth you deny. They declared that all men 
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
You dwell upon the pleasure of laboring, praying, 
singing, and communing with fifteen hundred slaves, 
as though that were some part or parcel of slavery, 
which should commend it to our regard, or which 



104 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

reconciles you to it. or justifies you in supporting it ; 
whereas there is nothing in the genius, the laws, the 
spirit or tendency of the institution, to produce any 
such state of things, but entirely the contrary. All 
which you describe as lovely is to be attributed to 
humanity and religion, pushing their conquests into 
the empire of slavery." 

This letter abounded in facts. He spread out be- 
fore the eye the fifteen hundred thousand human be- 
ings whom the Presbyterian synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia, by their committee, say. "will bear a 
comparison with the heathen in any country in the 
world." He spoke of their " own missionary (Tur- 
pin). who. in giving oral instructions to the slaves. 
drew forth a remonstrance signed by three hundred 
and fiftv-two individuals, the ground of which was 
•knowledge is power.'" and that ••intelligence and 
slaverv have no affinity for each other." •• You express 
fears that the church will be rent in twain by this 
topic. Should it be so. will not the responsibility- rest 
upon those who shall be found to love power more 
than justice, to love slavery more than their brethren 
whom the monster crushes, and prefer fellowship with 
that system of human degradation to communion with 
the church of Christ?" Notwithstanding the opposi- 
tion of the South. Mr. Galusha is elected president of 
the Missionary Convention of the State of Xew York 
by a triumphant majority, and the feeling is. that there 
will be a close fight at Baltimore, with a probability 
of a split of the denomination and a division even 
among the southern members. 

March 24. 1S41. the executive committee of the 



SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTIONS. IO5 

American Baptist Anti-Slavery Society sends another 
address to the South, in which slavery is held up as 
a sin against God, and the violation of every natural 
right of man. Rejoinders are written, and answers 
come back. In the spring of 1841, the conflict culmi- 
nated. The principal benevolent societies of the Bap- 
tist denomination met in Baltimore, April 29, and 
began their work Friday, A.M., April 30. This ses- 
sion was the most important of any in its results. 
After hearing the treasurer's report, the Convention 
proceeded to ballot for its Board of Managers. This 
election included a vote on the name of Elon Galusha. 
Meetings had been previously held in Baltimore, both 
public and private, where a ticket had been prepared 
in which the name of every abolitionist, hitherto on 
the Board (with the exception of Baron Stow), was 
left off. In the minutes of the twentieth anniversary 
of the Georgia Baptist Convention, page 9, there is 
a reference to the action of this meeting. From this 
it appears that a meeting of southern delegates was 
held in Baltimore, on Monday previous to the meeting 
of the Convention, in which a document signed by a 
large number of northern brethren was submitted as 
a voluntary expression of their sentiments. This doc- 
ument determined the southern delegates to take no 
action till after the election of the Board of Managers. 
In this election all known abolitionists were left off 
the Board of Foreign Missions. Baron Stow, a for- 
mer member of the Board, had been exceptionable at 
the South ; but a letter addressed by him to the For- 
eign Secretary was read before the meeting of south- 
ern delegates, of which a copy was preserved, and of 

5* 



Io6 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

which the following is the substance : u I do wholly 
disapprove the denunciatory language so much in 
vogue with some in regard to slaveholders. I think 
it not only impolitic and inexpedient, but uncourteous 
and unchristian. The address of the Baptist Anti- 
Slavery Convention to southern Baptists I was dissat- 
isfied with at the first reading, and refused to distrib- 
ute it, as requested, among my friends of the South. I 
have never been able to satisfy myself, from the New 
Testament, that I ought to deny any courtesy to a Chris- 
tian brother because he is a slaveholder." This com- 
munication induced the southern delegates to believe 
it would be impolitic to oppose his reelection. The 
election came and passed, and Mr. Galusha's name 
was dropped. Dr. Fuller, in the convention, declared 
that he had not been instructed how to vote. It was 
afterwards proved that he had been instructed by his 
Association, and had failed to remember or to state 
the fact. 

Dr. Stow T had declared himself dissatisfied with the 
address of the Anti-Slavery Convention. It was after- 
wards asserted that without objection he had voted to 
circulate three thousand copies of that address in the 
South. The letter says, " I refused to distribute it, 
as requested, among my friends of the South." These 
facts, spread among the churches, weakened the con- 
fidence of brethren in each other, and impaired their 
influence. 

In August, 1 841, the Tremont Street church took 
action, in which the hand of Timothy Gilbert is visi- 
ble. After reviewing in detail the facts to which we 
have hastily glanced, they — 



ACTION OF THE TREMONT STREET CHURCH. 107 

" Resolved, ist, — That the present Board are virtu- 
ally pledged to the fellowship and support of slavery ; 
that they have willingly given the South so to under- 
stand it ; that this pledge, as it was intended, has met 
and satisfied the demands of the South ; and that while 
the studied and peculiar manner of doing it may for a 
time succeed in blinding the eyes of many to the char- 
acter of the operation, it is in reality none the less a 
departure from the appropriate work of the Conven- 
tion, nor any the less effectual in prostituting the moral 
influence of that organization to the support of sla- 
very, than if it had been done in a more frank and 
official manner. 

" Resolved, 2d, — That, connected as were the doings 
of the Convention at Baltimore w r ith the above de- 
fined compromise document in the rejection of brother 
Galusha and others from the Board, and also with 
the intimation given at the time by brother Fuller, 
that it was to prevent the South from withholding 
their funds, we cannot divest the transaction of the 
appearance of bribery ; and that the Convention has 
assumed to itself a position of dictatorship over the 
disciplinary operations of the churches at once dan- 
gerous to their independence, their peace, and their 
purity ; and that so long as it maintains its present 
position, while our interest in the cause of missions is 
unabated, we are constrained, as we regard the cause 
of truth and righteousness, the responsibility of the 
churches to Christ, and the cause of missions itself 
(which has been put in jeopardy by their transac- 
tions), to seek some other channel through which our 
contributions may flow to the heathen, until these af- 
flictive obstructions are removed out of the way." 



IOS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Thus was sounded the note of alarm, and ground 
was broken for the organization of the provisional 
Committee. This was a period of intense excitement. 
In the North, as in the South, men took the position, 
that however right it may be to condemn slavery by 
vote in a meeting of citizens, it is a sin to condemn it 
by vote in a convention of Christians. "My kingdom 
is not of this world " — " Render therefore unto Caesar 
the things that are Csesar's" — were texts ever on the 
world's broad tongue. 

There was another side to'the picture. In Hamilton, 
N. Y., August 17, 1841, the American Baptist Anti- 
Slavery Convention, in a meeting composed of two 
hundred and eight prominent Baptists, declared, — 

1 . That the system of American slavery, by regard- 
ing immortal men, not as sentient beings, but as things 
or chattels personal in the hands of their owners, is 
subversive of all human rights, and a sin against 
God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men. 

2. That immediate repentance of the sin of slavery 
is the duty of the master, and immediate emancipation, 
under the protection of law, the right of the slave. 

3. That for us to extend the hand of church fellow- 
ship to those who continue to practise, or in any way 
justify, the system of American slavery after due gos- 
pel labor, is virtually to bid them God speed, and 
thus to become partakers of their evil deeds. 

4. That to acknowledge slavery to be a great evil 
and sin, and yet to put forth no efforts for its over- 
throw, and especially to continue our unrestrained fel- 
lowship with those who practise it, is palpably incon- 
sistent with the obligations of the disciples of Him who 
was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. 



DISTINCT MISSIONARY SOCIETY. IO9 

This Convention, composed of men who were true to 
the slave, among whom were Jacob Knapp, Elon Ga- 
lusha, John Blain, Lewis Raymond, J. L. Hodge, Cyrus 
P. Grosvenor, took ground in favor of adhering to 
the Triennial Convention ; but " if any cannot con- 
scientiously contribute their funds through the general 
treasury, we recommend them to commit such free- 
will offerings to the executive committee of the Amer- 
ican Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention through their 
treasurer, Simon G. Shipley, Esq., of Boston." They 
declared that the American Colonization Society's 
enterprise not only passes by the slave, but degrades 
the free negro, while it opens its arms to receive the 
lowest class of white emigrants from foreign nations, 
and elevates them to a participation in all the privi- 
leges of our institutions. 

Bold and uncompromising as were the positions 
taken, they failed to satisfy the time-honored aboli- 
tionists of Massachusetts. Among that number was 
Mr. Gilbert. He did not believe in temporizing. 
From the first he took the most ultra position, and 
refused to countenance slavery in any way or form. 
In his subscriptions to benevolent societies, he made 
specifications that the money given should not be 
used to aid in the extension of slavery, and if possi- 
ble that it should be used to eradicate the evil. 

In April, 1842, Rev. Nathaniel Colver publicly took 
his stand in favor of a separate missionary organ- 
ization. Money began to flow in for the support of 
missions, without its going through the hands of the 
Board. In the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Con- 
vention, held in Boston, May 18, 1842, Rev. Elon 



IIO MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Galusha in the chair, the following resolution passed 
unanimously : — 

Resolved, — "That at the commencement of the 
session, this afternoon, special prayer be offered to 
God for wisdom to direct." 

In compliance with the resolve, prayers were offered 
by several brethren in succession, which were charac- 
terized by deep tenderness and solemnity. The crisis 
had been reached, and the plan of the provisional 
foreign committee was adopted, which, after setting 
forth the grievances of those, who, "while they believed 
it to be the duty of all who enjoy the privileges of the 
gospel of Christ to use their best endeavors to furnish 
them to those who are enshrouded in the darkness of 
heathenism, — the genius of the gospel itself being that 
of a missionary enterprise, intended to enlighten and 
recover a lost world, — yet felt that the connection of 
the foreign missionary operations with slavery was 
grossly inconsistent with the principles of the gospel, 
resolved to open a new channel of communication 
with the heathen, and with our missionaries already in 
the field, through which we may fulfil our obligation 
without compromising principle or weakening our tes- 
timony against the sin of slavery." 

Now that the society was ready for business, Tim- 
othy Gilbert stepped to the front, and was elected 
treasurer, and at once set about opening a correspond- 
ence with the heathen world. 

The conflict now raged all along the lines. The 
provisional committee was denounced, and it was ap- 
plauded. Good men refused to sustain it, and good 
men came to its aid. In the front of this battle of 



THE CHARACTER OF THE CONFLICT. Ill 

words was Nathaniel Colver. Charge upon him from 
what side they chose, he was alike invulnerable. The 
church now met in Tremont Chapel, under the Boston 
Museum. They numbered nearly four hundred mem- 
bers, and were pronounced " a devoted and efficient 
body of Christians." 

The decks were cleared for action. The wants of 
the world abroad united with the wants of the world 
at home in driving God's honored columns to seek 
help from on high. This period of consecration, and 
of devotion to the cause of the slave, preceded a pe- 
riod of blessing such as the church has seldom been 
permitted to enjoy. The fountain was made full at 
home, that the stream of benevolence might flow forth 
to make glad the waste places of earth. 



112 



CHAPTER VII. 

mr. gilbert's letter-book. — reflections con- 
cerning the duty of christian men and 
churches to the slave absorb his thoughts. 

and flame out from his correspondence. 

the provisional committee at work. corre- 
spondence with missionaries and others. 

drs. fuller and wayland on slavery. dr. 

Hague's review. 

In January. 1S41. Air. Gilbert commenced preserv- 
ing his more important letters. They reveal an ex- 
tended and comprehensive system of benevolence, a 
love for the slave that never falters, and a watchful eye 
over the interests of his Masters cause. 

In these letters the condition of the denomination is 
mirrored. In January. 1S40. he writes. "Men and 
women here, as a general thing, seem to be attending 
to everything ] 3ut tne one thing needful, the conversion 
of the soul. The wise and foolish virgins slumber 
together. We are looking and praying for a visit from 
the Saviour with the influences of the Holy Spirit. At 
times we have felt that he was at the door. A few 
mercy drops have fallen, but when we look at the 
desolations of Zion here, and in other parts of the 
country, we feel the need of divine help."' 

To Rev. Jacob Weston. Jamaica, he sends a box, 



LETTERS FROM MR. GILBERT. II3 

with cheering tidings concerning the spread of anti- 
slavery views, and gives an account of a discussion in 
the Kentucky Legislature. 

To a missionary just starting he gives excellent ad- 
vice concerning the privations to be encountered and 
the work to be performed, and asks him to " consider 
that these trials are but for a moment, while they 
promise to work out for you an exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." Later he writes, " The cause of 
emancipation in the country is onward, as the signs of 
the times indicate, although most of the churches, both 
North and South, are on the side of the oppressor. If 
you have seen the doings of the last Triennial Conven- 
tion, held at Baltimore, as reported by all except those 
opposed to abolition, you will see that the Board, in 
their individual capacity, have taken sides in favor of 
the slaveholders, and against the abolitionists, and 
have called our refusal to commune with slaveholders 
' a new test of Christian fellowship.' But the Lord 
reigns, and has brought, and is bringing, their counsels 
to nought, and will, no doubt, carry forward his cause 
by it, and thus make the wrath of man to praise him." 
August 11, 1841, because of the exclusion of the claims 
of the dumb and suffering slave from the columns 
of the "Watchman," with regret he withdraws his 
countenance and support. December 9, 1841, he 
writes Rev. C. P. Grosvenor, that there is a feeling 
in the minds of many brethren that another man would 
be less objectionable as the editor of the " Reflector. " 
On reflection he fears he may have injured his feelings, 
and writes him a letter full of assurances of sympathy 
and of appreciation, and adds, " Yet I am compelled to 



114 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

admit that, with many, your name is objectionable. " 
As a result, his name is dropped, and, in 1842, the 
paper appears without a nominal editor, but under 
the supervision of Simon G. Shipley, J. W. Parker, 
and Clement Drew. January 29, 1842, he writes his 
brother, "We are in the 'midst of a gracious revival. 
The Lord is pouring out his spirit and converting 
sinners. Many have, as we hope, passed from death 
unto life, and many more are pressing into the king- 
dom. Elder Knapp is laboring here, and his labors 
have been much blessed. Although he has been 
opposed by the enemies of God, yet the opposition has 
been overruled for God's glory, and the work pro- 
gresses. Although you are away from it, yet you are 
as near the Saviour in your lonely dwelling as we are 
in Boston ; and if you offer him the humble and con- 
trite heart, he will just as readily own and dwell with 
you there as here." February 17, 1842, he writes John 
Sartain relative to the engraving of Jacob Knapp, and 
makes arrangement to have it finished in the highest 
style of art. Letters now follow to a relative, chiding 
him for negligence and sloth ; to a friend in England, 
inquiring about the character of a guest in his house, 
who came a stranger in the name of a disciple ; to 
dear brother John W. Wilson in Georgia, who wants 
to borrow money, and who finds great trouble in 
getting on in the South. August 13, 1842, he with- 
draws from the committee of the Massachusetts Abo- 
lition Society, for want of time to attend to its duties, 
but continues his support. September 14, 1842, he 
opens an account with Baring, Brother, & Co., Lon- 
don, and sends one hundred pounds to Rev. Adoniram 



LETTER TO DR. JUDSON. 115 

Judson, as treasurer of the provisional committee, 
with the following letter : — 

" Rev. Adoniram Judson. Dear Brother : The 
provisional foreign mission committee of the Ameri- 
can Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention have voted to 
appropriate five hundred dollars, to be forwarded 
to you, to be expended by yourself and brother Wade 
in Burmah, for the mission cause. In case you should 
not sympathize with our conscientious views, you will 
consult with brethren Wade and Kincaid, and if either 
or both enter into our views, so far as to prefer to re- 
ceive their support in whole or in part from us, they 
may rely upon our remitting immediately and regularly 
the requisite amount. We do not wish those who 
shall elect to be thus supported, to separate themselves 
from the old Board, unless they prefer it, but are will- 
ing they should maintain their old relations, report 
through that channel, while they acknowledge the re- 
ceipt of funds from the committee. This arrange- 
ment is designed to continue so long as that Board 
shall maintain its present ground in favor of slavery. 

Permit me to say, that nearly all of the abolition- 
ists are hearty friends of the cause of missions abroad 
and at home ; but while they help the heathen in India, 
they are not willing to forget three millions of oppressed 
heathen in America, who are forbidden access to the 
Word of God, and who cannot be taught to read the 
Bible except severe penalties are incurred by the 
person thus guilty of instructing them. And this 
wickedness is sustained by professing Christians and by 
Baptists. Will not God be avenged on such a relation 



Il6 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

as this? We beg you to view this subject in the light 
of truth and righteousness, remembering that heathen 
at home are being sold by professed Christians to ob- 
tain money to send the gospel to heathen abroad." 

In October he writes again, and forwards docu- 
ments : ; * We hope you will candidly review this 
record of the doings of the Triennial Convention at 
Baltimore, and the action of our committee, and let 
your testimony go forth to the churches in this country 
in favor of the heathen here, as well as the heathen in 
India. Surely if there is any class of men in the 
world, of whom it can be said they have no helper, it 
is the slave in our own country. Husbands are sepa- 
rated from wives, children are torn from parents, and 
yet a system legalizing these atrocities is justified by 
ministers and churches who profess the religion of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. O that God would influence his 
servants in far distant lands to lift up a wail in be- 
half of those whose cry has been stifled and shut out 
because of the power of their oppressors, which has 
controlled the Mission Board, and made them willing 
to suppress this cry, lest the slaveholder should not 
give his money and sustain their operations, as though 
money could convert the heathen, while God has said, 
C I hate robbery for a sacrifice' ! We do not wish 
injury to the perpetrators of those deeds, but w^e ask 
that they may repent their folly before they meet these 
crushed ones at the bar of Jehovah. We believe that 
a proper testimony from the missionaries would do 
much towards setting the churches and the ministers, 
and through them the nation, right, and leading our 



MISSIONARY LETTERS. Il7 

rulers to establish justice and righteousness in the 
land." 

On November 9, there appeared in the " Reflector " 
a letter from Rev. D. L. Brayton, missionary at Mer- 
gui, British Burmah, which indorsed the position of 
the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society, and used this lan- 
guage : " The awful fact that the Bible is kept from 
the slave, is a consideration which has always most 
deeply affected my heart. . . . Another thing I have 
thought much of, is, the inconsistency of those who 
say, ' We are as much opposed to slavery as you are.' 
These brethren acknowledge slavery to be a sin. 
Now, the Bible expressly says, ' Suffer not sin to rest 
upon a brother/ The Bible commands, 4 Search the 
Scriptures ; ' slavery prohibits it. My wife and self 
observe the monthly concert for slaves, and feel deeply 
to sympathize with you in all your opposition and toil 
in this great and good work. We are happy to know 
of your success thus far, and trust that the time is not 
far distant when the rights of man shall be universally 
acknowledged, felt, and acted out by his fellow-man." 
In the same paper, Timothy Gilbert appears in print : 
" A brother from Hartford informs us that one of the 
authorized agents of the old Board stated that the 
five hundred dollars voted to them by the provisional 
committee had not been paid over, and suggested the 
query, whether the committee had the funds ; and if 
so, why not pay them over, as the income was small, 
and the expense of agencies was great? In answer 
to which, he, and all others who desire to know the 
facts, are informed, that the committee never voted 
either five hundred dollars, or any other sum, to the 



IlS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

old Board, but voted that five hundred dollars be sent 
to the Rev. Messrs. Judson and Wade ; and they have 
just received advices from the mercantile house in 
London through which the money was sent, that it 
has been forwarded by the overland mail to Mr. Jud- 
son. The committee have seven hundred dollars on 
hand, and will, no doubt, soon have missionaries of 
their own in the field, unless the old Board retract 
their testimony which they have given in favor of 
slavery, and against those who were trying to purify 
the churches from it, so that we can again cooperate 
together." December 7, letters from Mrs. D. B. S. 
Wade and Mrs. Sarah Judson fanned the flame which 
was spreading throughout the North. " It seems to 
us," said Mrs. Wade, " passing strange that any per- 
son having a true missionary spirit should not, of 
course, be an abolitionist. Can you suggest any plan 
for benefiting those now groaning in bondage ? There 
is one subject which has pressed heavily upon my 
heart, and I have found relief only by carrying it, as I 
do the wrongs of my poor brethren in bonds, to the 
throne of grace, and that is the unkind and unchristian 
spirit often manifested by abolitionists. And I fear 
that this has grieved away the Spirit and presence of 
God from many of those who have advocated a cause 
precious in his sight. This I fear more than all the 
apologists of slavery can do, for all our hope for the 
poor slave is in God. It is true we are to have no 
6 fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but 
rather reprove them ; ' but, then, what compassion, 
what gentleness, what forbearance, what kindness, 
does the situation of our poor slaveholding brethren 



BARON STOWS DENIAL. II9 

require from us? Ought we not to feel for them, even 
as Christ did, when he wept over Jerusalem?" 

" Though we live in a dark, heathen land," said 
Mrs. Judson, " where our ears are daily assailed, and 
our hearts constantly pained, by exhibitions of moral 
wretchedness, yet this cannot drown the loud and bit- 
ter cry of slavery, as it is borne to us, from time to 
time, over the wide ocean, from the distant shores of 
our beloved, though guilty country. The friends of 
emancipation are engaged in a fearful contest, but it is 
a contest of light with darkness, of justice with op- 
pression, and the final victory is, therefore, certain. 
A system so contrary to the spirit of our blessed 
Saviour, so fraught with violence and oppression to 
man, for whom he died, must inevitably give way, as 
the influence of that heavenly spirit becomes more 
and more prevalent." 

In the same number we find a denial, from the hand 
of Baron Stow, of " pledged neutrality," saying, " I 
never authorized any person or persons to give any 
pledge in my behalf, or to create any ' understanding ' 
in any mind with respect to my future course ; and I 
have yet to learn how ' the southern delegation ' were 
led to consider me as ; pledged ' to ' neutrality/ or as 
in any sense engaged ' to have nothing more to do 
with Anti-Slavery Conventions.' " The tide was 
rising. 

Returning to the letter-book, we find, January 10, 
1843, a letter in regard to Rev. Jacob Knapp's con- 
templated visit to Washington, " to attack the strong- 
hold of the devil in another form from the one in 
which you are engaged. I trust, if he is successful, 



120 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

it will be an entering wedge, which will, with the one 

you are driving, help rend asunder the bonds of 
slavery. As Mr, Knapp is an avowed abolitionist, 
and. among other sins, does not fail to expose slavery, 
I hope you will do all you can to strengthen his hands 
while among those who may, I fear, thirst for his 
blood ; and if it is not too great a favor, please keep 
me informed of the progress of the work." 

May ii. 1S43. ^ r - G. writes Rev. J. Wade, Tavoy, 
Burmah, in which he communicates the fact, that 
" the Female Missionary Society of the Tremont 
Street church sends a bell, weighing one hundred and 
fifty pounds, to be used on his chapel in Burmah ; 
documents of American Baptist Anti-Slavery Society ; 
and the information that the committee have seventeen 
hundred dollars, which they will use to establish some 
new mission disconnected with slaveholders, or for 
the support of some of the missionaries now in the 
field, should any of them signify a wish to receive sup- 
port from such a source. The majority of the aboli- 
tionists have not so much objection to receive the 
money of slaveholders, as to be associated with them 
in evangelizing the world, and thus, by the copartner- 
ship, acknowledge them to be Christians in good 
standing in the Baptist church, instead of bearing our 
testimony against them, and conniving with the in- 
junction. ; Come out from amongst them, and be ye 
separate.' s Have no fellowship with the unfruitful 
works of darkness, but rather reprove them.' Should 
the whole Christian church bear their united testimony 
against slavery, as against every other sin, I believe it 
would soon wither under the rebuke : but so long as 



MEETING OF THE FOREIGN BOARD. 121 

there are slaveholders in the southern portion of our 
country, and those who justify and apologize for it in 
other sections, connected with and fellowshiped by 
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, where shall we 
look for the salt to purify the fountain from this awful 
pollution, if it is not found in the church of Christ?" 
In a letter to Rev. L. Ingalls, same date, he says, 
" The abolitionists think that slaveholders should not 
be regarded as members in good standing in the 
Baptist church, and thus object to any connection 
that shall be considered as indorsing their Christian 
character." 

In April, 1843, the Baptist Board of Foreign Mis- 
sions held its anniversary in Albany. A resolution 
passed unanimously, without discussion and w r ith very 
little remark, which, it was hoped, would afford relief 
and gratification to many anxious minds. For the 
first time the subject of slavery is introduced into the 
report of the doings of the Board. "Whereas it ap- 
pears to have been extensively understood, that by 
certain transactions at Baltimore, during the last ses- 
sion of the Convention, the neutral attitude of the 
Board, in relation to slavery, was changed, therefore, 
Resolved, — That the circular issued by the Acting 
Board, in the year 1840, asserting ' their neutrality on 
all subjects not immediately connected with the great 
work to which they are especially appointed,' be re- 
issued and printed with the report of this year, as ex- 
pressive of the sentiments and position of the Board." 
In that circular, the positions were taken, that the 
" exclusive object of the founders of the General Con- 
vention, as expressed in the preamble to the constitu- 
6 



123 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

tion, was to send the glad tidings of salvation to the 
heathen, and to nations destitute of pure gospel light; " 
that the fathers were careful to lay no obstructions in 
the way of any individual contributing to its funds ; 
that by the constitution the right to a seat or represen- 
tation in the Convention is based on two conditions : 
First, that the religious body, or the individual, be of 
the Baptist denomination ; and, second, that the same 
shall have contributed to the treasury of the Con- 
vention a specified annual sum ; and that in regard 
to the continuance of Christian fellowship between 
northern and southern churches, it does not come 
under their cognizance in any form, nor within scope 
of the Convention with its present constitution. " The 
churches are independent communities ; they can exer- 
cise no authority over one another ; they have delegated 
no power to individuals or associations, within the 
knowledge of the Board, to act for them." In reply 
to the circular of the provisional committee, Rev. 
Solomon Peck, D. D., corresponding secretary, used 
this language : " The neutrality of the Board has not 
been yielded either at Baltimore or elsewhere. Dur- 
ing the whole of our proceedings, since the first agita- 
tion of the subject of slavery, it has been our earnest 
endeavor, as it was our avowed policy, to mind ex- 
clusively the missionary duties to which we had been 
called." 

On May 3, 1843, the American Baptist Anti-Slavery 
Convention, among other resolves, hastened to declare 
the action of the Board of Missions satisfactory, and 
" provided for the continuance of the provisional com- 
mittee for the purpose of making a proper appropria- 



NEW MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 1 23 

tion of missionary funds now on hand, and to receive 
such future donations as would not otherwise be made 
by those who cannot conscientiously contribute to the 
support of missions through the channel of the present 
Board." As a result, a new organization, known as 
the American and Foreign Missionary Society, was 
formed. Mr. Gilbert did not unite with it for reasons 
which were to him satisfactory. u When I shall be- 
come convinced," he writes to the " Reflector," " that 
there is no good reason to hope that the old missionary 
organization will purge itself from the charge of re- 
ceiving money in such a way as to enter into a co- 
partnership with slaveholders, and giving its sanction 
to that wicked institution, then I shall be prepared to 
abandon them, not provisionally, but forever." Au- 
gust 9, 1843, a letter from Dr. Judson was published, 
in which he acknowledges the money, and speaks en- 
couragingly of the prospect of Mr. Chandler and others 
acceding to the terms proposed. In a note, published 
August 23, 1843, after regretting the unadvised publi- 
cation of Dr. Judson's letter, he expresses the wish, 
" that the missionaries and the anti-slavery brethren 
at home should not anticipate the result of the next 
meeting of the Triennial Convention, but continue to 
pray, that after that meeting, no obstacle may continue 
to prevent the cooperation of all the enemies of op- 
pression in the missionary enterprise." 

Turning now to the letter-book, we are prepared 
to understand the statements made in a note, dated 
September 27, 1843, and addressed to Rev. J. Wade. 
" If you have written the old Board of your determi- 
nation, you will, no doubt, before you receive this, or 



124 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

by the same conveyance, have received a letter from 
them, stating that our committee is dead ; or perhaps 
thev may say the difficulty is all settled. That you 
may have a true statement of the facts, I will endeavor 
to give them to you in brief. At the meeting held in 
Albany the Board reaffirmed their neutrality, and re- 
printed the circular of 1840. As the maintenance of 
neutrality was all the majority of the abolitionists re- 
quired, they have done little besides reiterating their 
understanding of the position taken by the Board, and 
the character of the compromise made. 

" A portion of the abolitionists determined to wait 
another year before forming a new missionary organ- 
ization, contenting themselves with the provisional 
committee, which was formed to meet an emergency, 
but expected to end in a permanent organization, un- 
less the Triennial Convention should by an unmistak- 
able vote obliterate the record which gave sanction to 
the sin of slavery. 

" A portion of the abolitionists thinking otherwise, 
have formed a new missionary organization , to be 
forever separated from the sin of slavery. I did not 
enter the new organization, preferring to wait so long 
as there is the least ground for hope that the difficul- 
ties may be settled. In the mean time the provisional 
committee will disburse funds which may be intrusted 
to them. 

"We feel that God requires of us to seek to purify 
the churches of this awful sin, believing that the power 
of the church is essential to its eradication from the 
world. You ask, ' Do professing Christians keep 
their slaves in ignorance of the gospel?' They most 



LETTER TO MR. WADE. 1 25 

assuredly do. The laws of every slave state make it 
a great offence to teach a slave to read. Notwithstand- 
ing this, some are taught to read in secret by those 
who commiserate their condition, and have the moral 
courage to do right — say perhaps one in a hundred ; 
the remainder are excluded from all knowledge of the 
letter of the gospel. 

" Your views in relation to receiving money from 
slaveholders correspond with my own. I am per- 
fectly willing to receive funds, but would not solicit 
them for missions from a distiller, a rum-seller, or a 
slaveholder. Nor would I receive them, if by so do- 
ing I should lead him to think that I fellowshipped 
his sin. If I faithfully expose and rebuke his sin in 
violating the law of God, then, if after this he should 
offer me money for the heathen, I should receive it ; 
but at the same time I should tell him that nothing 
but repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus Christ, 
could in any measure remove the guilt of his trans- 
gression. It is not because the old Board has re- 
ceived the money of slaveholders that we object to 
their course, but because with the reception of the 
money there has been a tacit admission of the Chris- 
tian character of the slaveholder, seen in his being 
placed upon the Board, and in his being welcomed as 
a brother beloved in the Lord. Against this the 
abolitionists protested. For this they were left off 
from the Board, and the brand of public condemnation 
was affixed to the name of Elon Galusha." In con- 
clusion he informs the missionary that nothing he 
may write to the old Board on this subject is permit- 
ted to find its way to the public through the press, or 
is accessible to us who may wish to learn your views." 



1 26 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

In the '-Reflector" of October n. 1S43. the note 
of triumph was sounded, and the intelligence is com- 
municated to the public that Rev. J. Wade, of Tavoy, 

has thrown himself upon the provisional committee 
for support, desiring to t 1 ned separate from 

the unpaid toils of the slave. " This to me is a 
matter of joy and thanksgiving, inasmuch as slavery 
must be driven from the church before it can be 
driven from the world : and I trust that this decision 
of brother Wade will ultimately do more to take away 
from slavery the shield that the churches of our de- 
nomination have thrown around it. than any one act. 
besides, since the commencement of the anti-slavery 
feeling in the land. A meeting of the provisional com- 
mittee was held, and Rev. Duncan Dunbar led in 
prayer. It was voted to adopt Rev. J. Wade as mis- 
sionary, and make arrangements for remittance of 
funds, while the letter of acceptance in which the 
missionary stated the reasons for his action, was sent 
to the -Reflector 5 for publication." In this letter 
proof has been furnished that God. by his Spirit, 
worked upon the hearts of his servants in mission 
lands, leading them to take a decided stand against 
the foul system of slavery, which had nearly crushed 
our missionary operations by its deadly embrace, while 
the few devoted followers of Christ were taking a 
decided stand in opposition to the on-rushing tide of 
evil. His words bore the ring of the warrior and the 
burning glow of a Christian's zeal. " How slave- 
holders can give their money to send the gospel to the 
distant heathen, and yet approve of a policv which 
keeps their slaves in ignorance of the same gospel, is 



MR. WADE'S ANSWER. 12>J 

to me a paradox. Slavery, as it exists in America, is, 
I consider, a monstrous evil, both to the master and 
to the slave ; an outrage upon justice, a disgrace to 
the American flag, and the reverse of all Christian 
principles. I cannot suppose that it will survive the 
first dawnings of the millennial age. I need not advert 
to Mrs. Wade's views on this subject. It is enough to 
say she is a member of a female anti-slavery society, 
and will of course be gratified to know that no part 
of our support is to be derived from the unpaid toil 
of the slave." 

" The committee pledges itself to sustain any mis- 
sionary who prefers to receive his support in whole 
or in part, rather than be a partaker of the contribu- 
tions of slaveholders. This I prefer. I suppose the 
committee means to be understood as saying it will 
give the same support that the Board now gives, and 
that what are termed extra expenses will be paid by 
it as they now are by the Board. With these provisos 
I cheerfully accept the pledge, — not that I feel so 
conscientious about receiving support from slavehold- 
ers that I would sooner give up my work and leave 
the heathen to die ignorant of the gospel than receive 
such support, for I think, though slaveholders will not 
do justice to their slaves, yet the Lord has claims upon 
them relative to his cause among the heathen ; but so 
far as receiving such support goes to strengthen sla- 
very, I wish to discard it." 

In regard to the condition of affairs, Mr. W. writes, 
" I felt persuaded there was some cause, besides the 
hardness of the times, for the reduction of that mighty 
stream, which, a few years ago, was pouring into the 



I2S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

treasury, to so diminutive a rill as at present. Why 
should missionaries be recalled, schools, and other 
means for evangelizing the heathen which have been 
prosperously commenced, be abandoned for want of 
funds, while nothing is wanting to supply them but 
a proper channel through which they may flow with- 
out doing violence to the conscience ? The doings of 
the committee have anticipated the very thing which 
I proposed to brother Kincaid to attempt, if he should 
see cause for it." 

Thus, it appears, the provisional committee met a 
felt want of the denomination, and kept open the 
channels of benevolence in regions where the sins of 
a pro-slavery church had served to quench the flowing 
forth of the stream from the fountains of loving and 
believing hearts. 

In a letter dated October 14, 1843, Mr. Gilbert ad- 
dresses the following cheering words to the uncompro- 
mising missionary : " The committee rejoice in the 
opportunity to sustain a missionary who will join 
with us in bearing his testimony against one of the 
crying sins of the nation. You may rely upon it, 
that your conduct will thrill with joy the hearts of 
those who have sighed and cried over the abomina- 
tions that are done in the land ; and we doubt not but 
it will be, with the blessing of God, an important 
means in bringing the churches to the decision that 
slaveholding is inconsistent with good Christian char- 
acter. You need have no fear but that you will be 
amply sustained by those who feel opposed to the 
American system of slavery. 

" We wish you to understand distinctly that the old 



TO MR. WADE AGAIN. 1 29 

Board has studiously withheld from publication every- 
thing you have written on this subject. They do not 
hesitate, in many instances, to misrepresent us and our 
motives, by claiming that we desire to break up estab- 
lished order in society. True, there are abolitionists 
who have acted with us, as well as many who have 
been connected with the churches, that have gone off 
in favor of woman's rights, no government, &c, &c, 
but those who act with the provisional committee, as 
well as the great body of the abolitionists connected with 
our organization, are church-going and church-sup- 
porting people, who believe and sustain the distinguish- 
ing doctrines of the Bible and of the Reformation, and 
are hearty supporters of those who preach Christ and 
him crucified as the only hope of the sinner, and that 
without any compromise with Unitarianism or Univer- 
salism. While this is true of Christian abolitionists, 
it may be said to be a characteristic of the pro-slavery 
portion of the church that they wish to let alone the 
popular sins of the day, when opposing them exposes 
to public censure. For myself, — and I may say the 
same thing of my brethren, — we acknowledge no mas- 
ters in the flesh, and deem it our first duty to inquire 
as to the will of God : if, with the best light we can 
obtain, we feel that he will commend, we go forward, 
feeling that, while duty is ours, consequences belong 
to God. This, I think, should be the course pursued 
by all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. This spirit 
must animate the missionaries abroad, or their labors 
will be barren of results ; for, no doubt, the policy that 
makes the pro-slavery church dumb in the presence of 
the Moloch of slavery, would tempt the missionary to 
6* 



130 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

try and win the favor of the heathen by compromis- 
ing truth, in hope thereby of getting their good will, 
so that by and by they might gain greater influence 
over them. We hope, however, that you will never 
attempt any such compromise, but will unflinchingly 
do the Lord's will. We may add that your past 
course gives the most unequivocal assurances of your 
conduct for the future." 

" As to your relations with the old Board, I will 
say that there is very little probability- that they will 
allow you to receive your support from us, and yet 
be considered their missionary. I fear they will dis- 
card vou altogether for this act, unless they entertain 
a hope of your retracting in future. All we ask them 
to do, is to withdraw their shield from the slaveholders, 
and no longer defend or vindicate their Christian char- 
acter while they cling to that sin ; but this they re- 
fuse to do. They condemn our action, and stand as a 
barrier between us and the slaveholders. I write this 
with pain, yet fidelity to you makes a plain statement 
of the case a duty. But let us rejoice because of the 
presence of the Lord in our midst, and of the provi- 
dences which are fast driving slavery from its hiding- 
place in the church of Christ. We have much to en- 
courage us in the signs of the times in this country ; 
and I verily believe that those who cleave to that 
abomination will soon be crushed with it, as those 
were among the Philistines when Samson bowed his 
head and bore away the pillars of the temple. I pray 
God that he may cause his people to come out from 
among the defenders of slavery, and thus purge his 
church. It is the desire of the committee that har- 



MR. GILBERTS DEFENCE. 13I 

mony may characterize the councils and labors of the 
missionary, and that there may be no strife because 
of the spirit of dissension born of the discussion of 
slavery at home. Be Jesus Christ's men. Let there 
be no other strife than to see who shall be most like 
his Master in devotion to the interests of humanity, 
and in bearing an uncompromising testimony against 
sin." 

At this time the "Watchman" accused Deacon 
Gilbert of inconsistency, because he was willing to 
receive the money of slaveholders in exchange for 
merchandise. In reply, he says, " I consider money 
or produce, whether by the unpaid toil of the slave 
or in any other way, articles that may be rightly re- 
ceived for pianos or any other goods, without inquiring 
as to the source from whence they come. Those ar- 
ticles are neither better nor worse for passing through 
my hands or the hands of a slaveholder ; otherwise we 
must go out of the world for money, to get that which 
we could be sure had never been paid for unrighteous 
uses. It is not the money, but the price paid for it, 
which makes it corrupt in the hands of the holder, 
whether that price be a fellow-man or his unpaid la- 
bors, or barely the extending our Christian fellowship, 
as is the case with those who now receive the slave- 
holder's money for missions ; for I presume it will 
not be denied that the withdrawal of such fellowship 
would as effectually exclude their money as a direct 
refusal to receive it ; the first we are bound to do for 
the benefit of the slaveholder as well as the slave, but 
the last I think we have no right to do. Although 
slaveholders may buy my goods, they cannot, either di- 



132 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

rectly or indirectly, buy my intentional sanction to the 
system of American slavery ; and if, with the knowl- 
edge of this fact, they withdraw from me their patron- 
age. I am prepared to forego that ; but if, with this tes- 
timony against wickedness, they wish to purchase my 
goods, I have no scruples about receiving their money, 
as I give them a fair equivalent ; and once in my hands 
it is the same as if received from any other person, 
although in their hands it might have been corrupted 
because of the unrighteous manner in which it was 
obtained ; but now that they have exchanged it for goods 
that were mine, those become the corrupted articles, 
and so does every thing he may buy with it. See Deu- 
teronomy xxviii. 15-21 . I further would say that my in- 
fluence, and whatever income God may give me, either 
from the patronage of slaveholders or any other source, 
shall, according to my best judgment, be made to bear 
upon that wickedness until it is driven from the church 
of Christ, and from all our social or political institu- 
tions ; and this I hope to do without reference to the 
sneers or frowns of slaveholders or their apologists, 
either at the North or South. If the American Board 
of Foreign Missions will publish their condemnation of 
slavery as unequivocally as this, and consistently carry 
it out by withdrawing all Christian fellowship from 
slaveholders, then there will no longer be cause for 
continuing the provisional committee, or any other 
organization disconnected with that Board ; but we 
can all unite in the support of missions, and I doubt 
not but every friend of the oppressed in our denomi- 
nation cherishes the same view." 

Mr. Gilbert's correspondence now reveals the deep- 



TREMONT STREET CHURCH. I33 

ening hold of the claims of his Master's cause. He 
mourns over the desolations of Zion, and bewails the 
worldliness creeping into the church, and fears that 
" policy so intermingles with piety, that God cannot 
bless his people without exalting their pride." 

" A stream never rises higher than its fountain, and 
it is to be feared that the cause of Christ in heathen 
lands will suffer from the low state of piety here." 

" A leading man in one of our churches recently 
advocated building and finishing churches in such style 
as " to draw in the rich, in order that we may obtain 
their money to aid in the diffusion of the gospel. 
But to me this did not possess the characteristics of 
Christ's plan or preaching, who declared, ' The poor 
have the gospel preached to them.' " Mr. G. explains 
his view in regard to free-seated houses of worship, in 
private memoranda, in letters, in speeches, and con- 
versation. In writing to a missionary in the autumn 
of 1843, he says, " This building churches for the rich 
excludes the poor. They are not included in the plan. 
If they attend church, they are not welcomed to the 
body of the house, but are sent to the pew for the 
poor, or to the gallery. This serves to banish them 
from the house of God. The little church with which 
I am connected is on the free-seat plan. Here the rich 
and poor can meet together ; and the black and white 
are entitled to the same privileges. The Lord has 
so far prospered us that we have purchased the late 
Tremont Theatre, and expect soon to have it ready 
for use. It will seat about twenty one hundred 
persons, and it is in the heart of the city, convenient 
and accessible to all, cost fifty-five thousand dollars, 



134 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

and will require about twenty-five thousand dollars to 
fit it up, but, when complete, will have connected with 
it stores and other rooms for rent, the revenue from 
which, we expect, will meet the interest of the debt. 
The church, because of its anti-slavery character, has 
very little sympathy or assistance from the wealthier 
portion of our Zion ; but God has almost miraculously 
helped us, and our prospects brighten as the months 
speed on." 

November 16, 1843, he writes Mr. Wade, and gives 
him needed information in regard to the character of 
the assistants about to sail for India. " I would re- 
mark that there are two missionaries and their wives, 
and a Miss Lathrop, who is intended to assist Mrs. 
Wade, about to sail. The latter has been prevented 
from seeing me, and I have sought in vain for an in- 
terview. The Missionary Board seem unwilling that 
any one identified with the provisional committee 
should converse with her. They fear our influence. 
/ shall see her if possible. One of the men is a Mr. 
Binney, who has been a pastor of a slaveholding 
church in Savannah, Georgia, and in a conversation, 
where I was present, about two or three years since, 
proved himself to be a bitter opposer of the abolition 
movement, and was what I should call one of the most 
violent of pro-slavery men. If he has altered in his 
views it is unknown to me. We consider that the ob- 
ject of the Board in sending him out is to propitiate 
the feeling of the slaveholders, in order to get them to 
contribute for the support of missions ; but to us, that 
seems to be paying an unwarrantable price for aid. 
Unless they can assure the South that they fellowship 



MR. WADE TO MR. PECK. 135 

slaveholders as Christians, they cannot obtain funds in 
that quarter ; and if they do thus assure them, they 
provoke the divine displeasure, and divorce them- 
selves from the sympathy and support of the haters of 
slavery in the North." Mr. G. regrets that the Board 
persists in clinging to the South. " We presume they 
expect Mr. Binney to disabuse your mind of any un- 
favorable impression you may have received concern- 
ing the slaveholders. They utterly refuse to publish 
anything from the missionaries which can offend the 
South. Is it strange that God frowns upon such con- 
duct?" 

The following letter from Mr. Wade lays bare to 
the eye the heart of this apostle to the Karens. It is 
written to Rev. Solomon Peck, D. D., corresponding 
secretary of the Board of Missions : — 

Tayoy, April 23, 1844. 

Dear Brother Peck : On the 20th of last month I 
had the pleasure of receiving your letter to me in 
answer to the one I wrote you requesting permission 
of the Board to accept the offer of the provisional com- 
mittee to provide for my personal support from their 
funds. In your answer you say, " The acceptance of 
your personal support from the provisional foreign 
missionary committee, retaining also your connection 
with the Board, is an arrangement to which the Board 
cannot accede." 

Permit me to ask why the Board cannot accede to it. 
Has the Board adopted it as a general rule not to 
accede to the proposition of any society, church, or in- 
dividual, to support a missionary through the medium 



136 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

of the Board, despite the wish of such missionary to re- 
ceive his support in that way ? I suppose not ; and be- 
lieving that the Board has some particular reasons in 
this case why they cannot accede to such an arrange- 
ment, I shall, therefore, waive this subject. The Board 
have said they cannot accede to such an arrangement 
in this case. This answer is decisive. In a letter to Mr. 
Gilbert, dated January 29, 1844, I did accept the offer 
of support from the provisional committee, they hav- 
ing acceded to the terms which I submitted to them in 
a letter dated January 27, 1843. Here, I think, the 
matter must rest until I learn the results of the Tri- 
ennial Convention, which meets this month. The first 
remittance of the committee — one hundred pounds — 
I have credited to the Board, and have drawn on the 
Board for my salary and extra expenses up to the 1st 
of January, 1844, which I trust the Board will ap- 
prove. 

Having now been informed that the Board cannot 
accede to the arrangement of my drawing personal 
support from the committee, yet being under the direc- 
tion of the Board, I shall open accounts with the com- 
mittee from the 1st of January, 1844, hoping and 
praying that the results of the meeting of the Triennial 
Convention will be such that myself and all the abo- 
lition Baptists can conscientiously resume our former 
relations with the Board. At present the reasons 
which induced me to accept personal support from the 
committee remain. . . . You say, " The receipt of 
support or aid, from whatever source, has no necessary 
connection with slavery ; and still less ought it to be 
wrested into an approval or sanction of slavery." I 



MR. WADE TO MR. PECK. 137 

admit it ; the connection is not a ?iecessary one. As 
I said in my first letter to the committee, slaveholding 
brethren have a duty to perform in sending the gospel 
to the heathen, from which injustice to the slave does 
not excuse them. They ought to aid in the support 
of missions ; and missionaries receiving support from 
them do not thereby, under ordinary circumstances, 
involve themselves in the sin of slaveholding. If a 
man offers me money for the support of missions, I 
shall not ask him whether he is a slaveholder, a dis- 
tiller, a Catholic, a Mussulman, or a Christian, taking 
it for granted, that, whoever he be, he does well in 
wishing to promote the missionary cause ; whoever he 
be, it is right for him to put his money into the treas- 
ury of the Lord, " for the earth is the Lord's, and the 
fulness thereof." But if he intimate that his offering 
is a kind of oblation to the idol of slavery, the demon 
of intemperance, the beast, or the false prophet, and 
that, in taking it, I must bow to his idol, or, at least, I 
must agree not to denounce it, and, so far as my in- 
fluence extends, not tolerate any one who does de- 
nounce it, — I would then reject it, for his sake that 
showed it, and for conscience' sake, " for the earth is 
the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." When slaveholders 
make the exclusion of abolitionists from the offices of 
the Board the condition on which they aid the mis- 
sionary cause, I cannot, coitscientiously, receive sup- 
port from them on this condition. Let the condition 
be withdrawn, let Mr. Galusha be restored to his office 
in the Board, let the question of slavery and anti- 
slavery have no influence on the doings of the Con- 
vention, or in the obtaining of funds, and I shall no 



138 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

longer have any scruples about receiving my support 
as formerly. It is the condition on which slavehold- 
ing brethren pay their money which constitutes my 
objections to receiving it. 

The expulsion of Mr. Galusha from his office in the 
Board was not, I admit, an act of the Board, as a 
Board. No ; it was the act of the Convention, and I 
now want to see if the Convention will not, at its. 
present meeting, adopt measures which will heal the 
breach made by those of their last meeting. That 
they may do so, is my earnest prayer. 

We have with great pleasure heard of the arrival of 
the new missionaries at Maulmain, and are now daily 
anticipating the still greater pleasure of welcoming 
them to Tavoy. 

I remain, dear brother, 

Very affectionately yours, 
(Signed) J. Wade. 

In the letters which follow Mr. G. expresses his pleas- 
ure at the reception of letters which prove that mission- 
aries abroad keep step with the church at home in the 
holy crusade against slavery. He speaks of the dedica- 
tion of the Tremont Temple December 7, 1843, of the 
capacity of the house, of the crowds of young men and 
women which are gathered to listen to the searching 
discourses of his pastor. Sketches of sermons are 
often sent, texts are quoted, and the leading thought is 
set forth. February 27, 1845, he refers to a paper 
written by Rev. D. Sharp, D. D., in reply to resolu- 
tions forwarded by the Alabama State Convention, 
asking whether a slaveholder could receive an ap- 



LETTER FROM DR. SHARP. 1 39 

pointment as a missionary. The No is emphatic and 
decisive, and the manliness of the reply will tell upon 
the conflict now raging. It reads as follows : — 

Boston, December 17, 1844. 

Dear Sir : We have received from you a copy of 
a preamble and resolutions which were passed by the 
Baptist State Convention of Alabama. As there is a 
demand for distinct and explicit answers from our 
Board to the inquiries and propositions which you 
have been pleased to make, we have given to them our 
deliberate and candid attention. Before proceeding to 
answer them, allow us to express our profound regret 
that they were addressed to us. They were not 
necessary. We have never, as a Board, either done 
or omitted to do anything which requires the explana- 
tion and avowals that your resolutions " demand." 
They also place us in the new and trying position of 
being compelled to answer hypothetical questions, and 
to discuss principles, or of seeming to be evasive and 
timid, and not daring to give you the information and 
satisfaction which you desire. If, therefore, in answer- 
ing with entire frankness your inquiries and demands, 
we should express opinions which may be unsatis- 
factory or displeasing to you, our plea must be, that a 
necessity was laid upon us. We had no other alterna- 
tive, without being wanting, apparently, in that manly 
openness which ought to characterize the correspond- 
ence of Christian brethren. 

In your first resolution, you say, " that when one 
party to a voluntary compact between Christian breth- 
ren is not willing to acknowledge the entire social 



I.fO MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

equality with the other as to all the privileges and 
benefits of the union, nor even to refrain from impeach- 
ment and annoyance, united efforts between such 
parties, even in the sacred cause of Christian benevo- 
lence, cease to be agreeable, useful, or proper." In 
these sentiments we entirely coincide. As a Board, 
we have the high consciousness, that it has always 
been our aim to act in accordance therewith- We 
have never called in question your social equality as to 
all the privileges and benefits of the Foreign Mis- 
sionary Union. Nor have we ever employed our 
official influence in impeaching or annoying you. 
Should we ever do this, " our united efforts," as you 
justly say, would " cease to be agreeable, useful, or 
proper." 

In your second resolution, you " demand the distinct 
and explicit avowal, that slaveholders are eligible and 
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of their 
several unions, and especially to receive any agency, 
mission, or other appointment which may fall within 
the scope of their operations and duties." 

We need not say that slaveholders, as well as non- 
slaveholders, are unquestionably entitled to all the 
privileges and immunities which the constitution of 
the Baptist General Convention permits and grants to 
its members. We would not deprive either of any of 
the immunities of the mutual contract. In regard, 
however, to any agency, mission, or other appoint- 
ment, no slaveholder or non-slaveholder, however 
large his subscriptions to foreign missions, or those of 
the church with which he is connected, is on that ac- 
count entitled to be appointed to an agency or a mis- 



LETTER FROM DR. SHARP. 141 

sion. The appointing power, for wise and good 
reasons, has been confided to the u Acting Board," 
they holding themselves accountable to the Conven- 
tion for the discreet and faithful discharge of this 
trust. 

Should you say, "The above remarks are not suf- 
ficiently explicit ; we wish distinctly to know whether 
the Board would, or would not, appoint a slaveholder 
as a missionary," — before directly replying, we would 
say, that in the thirty years in which the Board has 
existed, no slaveholder, to our knowledge, has applied 
to be a missionary. And, as we send out no domestics 
or servants, such an event as a missionary taking 
slaves with him, were it morally right, could not, in 
accordance with all our past arrangements, or present 
plans, possibly occur. If, however, any one should 
offer himself as a missionary, having slaves, and should 
insist on retaining them as his property, we could not 
appoint him. One thing is certain : we can never be a 
party to any arrangement which would imply appro- 
bation of slavery. 

In your third resolution, you say, that " whenever 
the competency or fitness of an individual to receive 
an appointment is under discussion, if any question 
arises affecting his morals, or his standing in fellow- 
ship as a Christian, such question should not be dis- 
posed of, to the grief of the party, without ultimate 
appeal to the particular church of which such an 
individual is a member, as being the only body on 
earth authorized by the Scriptures, or competent, to 
consider and decide this class of cases." 

In regard to our Board, there is no point on which 



I42 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

we are more unanimously agreed than that of the in- 
dependence of churches. We disclaim all and every 
pretension to interfere with the discipline of any 
church. We disfellowship no one. Nevertheless, 
were a person to offer himself as a candidate for mis- 
sionary service, although commended by his church as 
in good standing, we should feel it our duty to open 
our eyes on any facts to the disadvantage of his moral 
and religious character which should come under our 
observation. And while we should not feel that it 
"was our province to excommunicate or discipline a 
candidate of doubtful character, yet we should be un- 
worthy of our trust, if we did not, although he were a 
member of a church, reject his application. It is for 
the Board to determine on the prudential, moral, 
religious, and theological fitness of each one who offers 
himself as a missionary ; it is for the church, of which 
such a one is a member, to decide whether he be a 
fit person to belong to their body. 

The other resolutions, which were passed in your 
recent Convention, regard more your own action than 
ours. They therefore call for no remarks from us. 
We should have been gratified, in the present im- 
poverished and embarrassed state of our treasury, if the 
brethren in Alabama, confiding in the integrity and 
discretion of the " Acting Board," could unhesitating- 
ly have transmitted to us their funds. We have sent 
out missionaries and enlarged our operations, in the 
expectation that, so long as we acted in conformity 
with the rules and spirit under which we were ap- 
pointed, we should be sustained both by the East and 
the West, the North and the South. If in this just 



EFFECT OF DR. SHARP S LETTER. 1 43 

expectation we are to be disappointed, we shall ex- 
perience unutterable regret. 

We have, with all frankness, but with entire kind- 
ness and respect, defined our position. If our brethren 
in Alabama, with this exposition of our principles and 
feelings, can cooperate with us, we shall be happy to 
receive their aid. If they cannot, painful to us as will 
be their withdrawal, yet we shall submit to it, as 
neither sought nor caused by us. 

There are sentiments avowed in this communica- 
tion, which, although held temperately and kindly, 
and with all due esteem and Christian regard for the 
brethren addressed, are, nevertheless, dearer to us 
than any pecuniary aid whatever. 
We remain, yours truly, 

In behalf of the Board, 

Daniel Sharp, President. 

Baron Stow, Rec. Sec. 

Rev. Jesse Hartwell, 

President Alabama Baptist State Convention. 

The effect of this document was apparent in the 
North and in the South. Virginia Baptists, in full 
Convention, instructed the treasurer of their State Con- 
vention to pay over no more money. Other states 
took similar action. The meeting of the Triennial 
Convention, to be held in Providence, began to be 
looked forward to with overwhelming interest, inas- 
much as an attempt would be made to reverse the 
decision of the Board. The provisional committee 
took action on the subject, and unanimously approved 
the decision of the Board, and in the last of March, 
1845, issued the following address : — 



144 memoir of timothy gilbert. 

Address of the Provisional Committee. 

At this crisis in our missionary operations, the Pro- 
visional Foreign Mission Committee deem themselves 
called upon to publish the following distinct expres- 
sion of their views and feelings. The committee was 
organized with reluctance, to meet an exigency be- 
lieved then to exist. It was honestly supposed that 
previous transactions had committed the Baptist Board 
of Foreign Missions to the support of the institution 
of slavery, so as to render further cooperation with 
them a connivance at that sin. It never has been our 
desire that the Convention, or its Board, should turn 
aside from their appropriate work, to contend against 
slavery ; all we wished was, that they would oppose 
it and its claims, when, like idolatry, or licentious- 
ness, or intemperance, it should seek to resist, or im- 
pede, or corrupt the great enterprise of spreading the 
gospel in its power and purity. Yet it was painfully 
observed that slaveholders were too successfully en- 
deavoring to subordinate this organization to their 
aid, in opposing the free action of northern brethren 
and churches against their favored institution. They 
sought to compel their coadjutors here by threats of 
displeasure, and a disruption in case of a refusal, to 
publish to the world, either individually or officially, 
directly or indirectly, that slaveholding does not dis- 
qualify any one for church membership, or for the . 
ministry, or for the office and work of a missionary, 
and that it is no sin. And their supposed success at 
Baltimore, in 1840, prevented them then ixom. with- 
holding their funds and withdrawing from the Con- 
vention. 



ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE. 145 

Doubtless many of our brethren were deceived re- 
specting the design of those transactions, and were 
thus made to contribute to results which they did not 
anticipate. But if at that time the real intention of 
slaveholders to subject the missionary organization to 
the interests of their cherished system was not de- 
tected, their recent attempt has been less successful. 
Their threats of disunion, withholding funds, &c, so 
often made to constrain the Board to abandon their 
appropriate duties, and give countenance to slavehold- 
ing, have now met with a merited rebuke. In their 
last movements their aim has been sufficiently obvious 
to convince even the most wavering of the character 
of their former designs. But through the ordering of 
Providence, and the fidelity of the Acting Board to 
their convictions of duty, the South have obtained so 
much testimony against their " peculiar institution/' as 
will leave them hereafter in no doubt respecting the es- 
timation in which slaveholding by the ministry is held 
at the North. Thus they have constrained the Board 
to do all that we ever desired. And we are happy 
in believing and declaring, that they have thus re- 
moved all cause of suspicions of any connivance with, 
or responsibility for, the sin of slavery. Should the 
South continue to contribute to the Board after what 
has been said, we should regard such funds as those 
received from irreligious men, the reception of which 
does not involve the Board in the guilt of the donor. 
So long as they maintain this position with that can- 
dor and firmness with which it has been taken, we 
feel free to say, that we shall give them our most cor- 
dial support, and we believe it is the solemn duty of 

7 



I46 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

all who love the cause of missions, to come to their 
aid with that devotion and liberality which its present 
languishing condition demands. . . . 

All who prefer openness and candor to concealment 
and intrigue, cannot fail to honor the Board for the 
manner in which they have answered the questions 
lately put to them by a portion of the South. No 
doubt the latter would like to reverse the decision ; 
but they, as well as we, desired that a decision should 
be made. From the necessity of the case, an answer 
must be fatal to the hopes of one or the other party, 
and prevent their continued harmonious cooperation. 
But an evasion of the difficulty would have been more 
so. The character and spirit of slavery, and the light 
pervading Christendom, in our judgment, render a 
decision inevitable. If the entire North sustain the 
Board, the line will be drawn, where it belongs, be- 
tween freedom and slavery. And indeed, wherever 
the line may run, it will separate between those who 
uphold slavery and those who refuse to do so. 

To such as have felt constrained, with us, to with- 
draw their direct cooperation with the Board for a 
season, we say with deep sincerity and emotion, See 
to it that our brethren are sustained in the honorable 
stand which they have taken, and which, we doubt- 
not, they will maintain. For us now to stand aloot 
would be base and treacherous. Gratitude to God 
for an event for which we have earnestly prayed, 
should keep us from such a course. So much of the 
support of the cause as has hitherto come from the 
unpaid toils of the slave, will, no doubt, now be with- 
held ; let this deficiency be more than made up by your 



ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE. 147 

increased liberality. Let not the Board and the mis- 
sionaries suffer, because the former refuse in any way 
to sanction a system of wrong which has been alike 
grievous to us all. The missionaries in Burmah once 
had it under consideration to request the Board to deduct 
from their scanty salaries the probable amount secured 
from slave labor, and it was not that they would not 
have deemed privation a luxury, compared with the 
thought that the means of their own support were in 
part the price of some Christian brother or sister sold 
into perpetual bondage, — a doom more dreadful than 
death, — that this resolution was not taken. 

Let this fact, and others still more plainly indicating 
the harmony of their views and feelings with our own, 
impel us to exert our utmost to afford hearts so noble 
all they desire for their own comfort, and for the suc- 
cess of that cause which we all so much love. We 
entreat you to allow no partiality for contention, and 
no vain excuse, to deter you from giving immediate 
and convincing evidence of your sincere and firm at- 
tachment to this holy enterprise. Let us remember 
those who consecrated their all to it, and bear in mind 
that we are no less the Lord's. Let those whose funds 
have been conveyed through another channel now 
promptly direct them to this. And if for any cause 
any have kept back their donations, let them see to it 
that they are now honestly paid over to the treasury 
of Him who will not be robbed with impunity. 
By order and in behalf of the Committee, 

S. G. Shipley, Chairman. 

Geo. W. Bosworth, Secretary. 



I48 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

In the midst of increasing excitements the meetings 
in May came on. The action of the Convention was 
mild, temperate, and firm. The committee, of which 
Dr. Wayland was chairman, to whom the Alabama 
resolutions were referred, reported that, 

All members of the Baptist denomination in good 
standing, whether at the North or South, are constitu- 
tionally eligible to all appointments emanating either 
from the Convention or Board. 

While this is the case, it is probable that contin- 
gencies may arise in which the carrying out of this 
principle might create the necessity of making ap- 
pointments by which the brethren at the North would 
either in fact, or in the opinion of the Christian com- 
munity, become responsible for institutions which they 
could not, with a good conscience, sanction. 

Were such a case to occur, we would not desire 
our brethren to violate their convictions of duty by 
making such appointments, but should consider it in- 
cumbent on them to refer the case to the Convention 
for its decision. 

All which is respectfully submitted, in behalf of the 
committee. 

F. Wayland, Chairman. 

Rev. Dr. Welch opposed the reception of the re- 
port, on the ground that it is too ambiguous to meet 
the expectations of the denomination in this period of 
earnest agitation. He remarked that we are called as 
honest Christian men to meet the question, whether 
the North and South shall cooperate in the great work 



DEBATES ON THE RESOLUTIONS. I49 

of foreign missions. He proposed to add to the report 
resolutions sympathizing with the Acting Board in 
their trying circumstances, and fully sustaining their 
late actions. 

The third article was then adopted. 

Rev. Dr. Welch's resolutions were again read. 

The first, which was ultimately adopted, was as fol- 
lows : — 

"Resolved, — That we sincerely and deeply sym- 
pathize with our brethren of the Acting Board, charged 
with the interests of the missions during the recess of 
the Convention, in the responsibilities they sustain and 
the difficulties with which they are surrounded, and 
we now pledge to them our cordial cooperation and 
liberal support." 

The second having been again read, Rev. Mr. Jeter 
arose, and stated that the South would never have par- 
ticipated in forming the Convention, if they had not 
supposed themselves on terms of perfect equality with 
their brethren at the North. He thought it, therefore, 
not improper for the Alabama Baptists to address the 
Board as they did. They had, besides, some special 
reasons. The Board, he remarked, "were bound to 
reply ; and their reply he understood as at first, not- 
withstanding all explanations. It made slaveholding 
a disqualification. And as doing so it cuts off the 
South from all participation in managing the affairs 
of the Board. We regard the position of the Board 
as unconstitutional. If they had left us an inch to 
stand upon, we would have remained in cooperation 
with the Board. But, said he, we have not that inch 
left. We are cut off. He wished the brethren of the 



I50 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

North union among themselves, and feelingly adverted 
to his own position as a slaveholder by necessity, 
rather than by choice. " 

Rev. Dr. Williams dissented from the second reso- 
lution of Dr. Welch. It seemed to him that the adop- 
tion of the resolution would destroy the unity of the 
report of the committee. He thought the report, as 
it stood, adapted to produce a soothing effect — a 
soothing effect at the South, though cooperation can- 
not be maintained — a soothing effect at the North, 
which would tend to harmony in this section of the 
Union. He desired the separation to be relieved of 
its unhappy features, and to be marked by such senti- 
ments of piety and affection as should be approved 
by the Holy Ghost. He thought we had done well 
to pass the first resolution, expressing our sympathy 
with the Board, but thought it could do no good to go 
further. 

Rev. Dr. Stow was opposed to the passing of this 
resolution. " First, it would tend unnecessarily to exas- 
perate the South. The South are about to withdraw 
— let us not, said he, give bitterness to the separation. 
Second, there are many in the Northern and Middle 
States who do not sustain the Board, and these he 
would not exasperate. And, third, the Acting Board 
do not desire it ; the first resolution is all that they 
desire. If the Board pledge their sympathy, and 
continue their cooperation, no more is desired. The 
doings of the Acting Board are before the world, and 
may be left to stand or fall upon their own merits.'' 

On May 7, 1845, the American Baptist Anti-Slavery 
Convention held its last anniversary in the McDougal 
Street Baptist Church, New York. 



DISSOLUTION OF THE CONVENTION. 151 

Satisfied with the action of the Convention, and 
convinced that their organization had been fully vin- 
dicated, and that the purposes which called it into 
existence had been won, it was voted " to dissolve the 
provisional committee, and that the executive com- 
mittee be instructed immediately to pay out all funds 
in their treasury for the support of Mr. and Mrs. 
Wade, or, in case of their death, that the committee 
pay out these funds for the support of other Baptist 
anti-slavery missionaries, and that the treasurer be 
directed to receive no more funds for the purpose of 
either domestic or foreign missions ; that the necessity 
which called into existence this Convention is met, or 
may be met, more fully by other anti-slavery organiza- 
tions or moveme ats ; that the executive committee 
carry into effect the resolution for the disposal of the 
funds as soon as possible, and then publish that fact, 
and announce the dissolution of the American Baptist 
Anti-Slavery Convention." 

Thus were brought to a triumphant close the doings 
of a body whose influence was felt in foreign climes, 
and whose noble and persistent bearing in favor of 
gospel and political freedom changed the character 
of our great organizations, and laid bare, to the gaze 
of mankind, the impiety, the tyranny, and the mon- 
strosity of American slavery. At this point Mr. Gil- 
bert separated from many of his co-laborers ; they 
adhering to the fortunes of the American and Foreign 
Baptist Missionary Society, while he gave his unquali- 
fied support to the Missionary Union from that time 
on to the close of his eventful life. 

Though a triumph had been won in the North, the 



152 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

principles touching slavery held by men of promi- 
nence were sadly at variance with his own. The 
correspondence, as printed in the " Reflector/' between 
Drs. Fuller and Wayland excited surprise. He felt a 
contempt for the effort made to prove that Christianity 
sanctions slavery. When Dr. Fuller declared, u I find 
my Bible condemning the abuses of slavery, but per- 
mitting the system itself," he claimed that he was 
disgraced as a Baptist. In his estimation, the con- 
cessions of Dr. Wayland, that " the New Testament 
contains no precept prohibitory of slavery," yielded 
up the ground, and permitted the southern champion 
to bear oft' the palm. In 1846 William Hague, D. D., 
read before the Conference of Baptist Ministers a re- 
view of the discussion, which found its way into print 
in the year following, and has become memorable, 
because it met the argument of Dr. Fuller by the 
maintenance of positions which covered the point 
that Dr. Wayland had left vulnerable.* The article 
has a noteworthy history. It evidenced that too much 
had been conceded to pro-slavery writers. Dr. Thomp- 
son and Dr. Cheever, who examined its positions, cor- 
roborated every one of them, and acknowledged their 
indebtedness to. the review ; while Theodore Parker 
spoke of it as being a contribution of permanent worth 
to the cause of human freedom. In it the position is 
affirmed that apostolic Christianity actually abolished 
slavery, the relation of owner and chattel, whenever 

* It is entitled " Christianity and Slavery," and may be found 
in the excellent volume which has been issued by Gould and Lin- 
coln under the title of " Christianity and Statesmanship." 



DR. HAGUE S REVIEW. 1 53 

both of the parties acknowledged the supremacy of 
the law of Christ, as members of a Christian church. 

Those acquainted with Mr. Gilbert's peculiar views 
can imagine how he would relish this mode of han- 
dling the professed advocate of the slave. We quote 
from the review : " The mode in which the new dis- 
pensation is supposed to have borne upon the slave 
system is thus expressed by Dr. Wayland : ' By teach- 
ing the master his own accountability ; by instilling 
into his mind the mild and humanizing truths of 
Christianity ; by showing him the folly of sensuality 
and luxury, and the happiness derived from industry 
and frugality and benevolence, it would prepare him, 
of his own accord, to liberate his slave, and to use all 
his influence towards the abolition of those laws by 
which slavery was maintained. By teaching the slave 
his value and his responsibility as a man, and subject- 
ing his passions and appetites to the laws of Chris- 
tianity, and thus raising him to his true rank as an 
intellectual and moral being, it would prepare him for 
the freedom to which he was entitled, and render the 
liberty which it conferred, a blessing to him as well as 
to the state, of which he now for the first time formed 
a part.' " 

This Deacon Gilbert rightly thought conceded 
too much, and so he gave his assent to the utter- 
ance that the statement, as made by Dr. Wayland, 
" falls far short of the truth, and grants a great 
deal too much." "It is yielding to the advocate of 
slavery an advantage which in Dr. Fuller's hands has 
been made to take on the aspect of a triumph." " All 
the world confess that Dr. Wayland is an elegant 

H # 



154 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

writer and a strong reasoner ; but the strongest rea- 
soner cannot create truth ; the highest result that he 
can achieve, in a discussion like this, is to use effec- 
tively the elements of truth and power with which 
reason and revelation have furnished him. But, after 
such a concession as this, we cannot conceive it to be 
within the scope of the human intellect to impart to 
the scriptural argument against slavery an appearance 
of great strength. To give it force and poignancy, to 
direct it with quickening and commanding energy to 
the conscience of the slaveholder, are " impossible." 
Dr. Hague then showed that the Epistles of Paul con- 
taining the passages referred to were addressed, not 
to the world at large, nor to the subjects of the Roman 
empire as such, nor to men as men and citizens, but 
to little communities of Christians, who had come out 
from the world, and had risen above the level of 
Roman law to a higher moral realm wherein Christ 
swayed a sceptre of sovereignty ; unto whom, looking 
up, they could say with the voice of common adora- 
tion, in response to his own announcement to them, 
Thou alone art our Master, and all we are brethren. 
He showed that slavery had been for centuries abol- 
ished among the Jews, and that the right of slave 
property under Roman law did not inhere any more 
in the relation of master and servant than it did in 
that of parent and child. Then taking up the Scrip- 
ture references, he showed that all harmonized with the 
apostolic declaration, " God hath made of one blood 
all nations of men to dwell upon all the face of the 
earth ; " and that " for disciples of Christ there was 
no need of instructions to inform *:hem that one of 



dr. Hague's review. 155 

their number had no right to hold the other as prop- 
erty." In other words, he showed that, as the element 
of chattelship, of absolute property, inhered, as a fun- 
damental principle of Roman law, in the relation of 
the wife to the husband and of the child to the parent, 
as well as in that of master and servant, if Christianity 
impliedly sanctioned slavery, or chattelship in the ser- 
vile relation, it was equally sanctioned, by parity of 
reasoning, in the conjugal and filial relations. Every 
wife was a slave to the husband, every child was a 
slave to the father, in accordance with Christianity. 
The argument of Dr. Fuller proved too much, and, 
of course, proved nothing. The following declaration 
gave expression to Dr. Hague's thought, and in a clear 
manner defined the position of the disputants : " The 
man who, in the view of the civil law, is regarded as a 
slaveholder, but who, in heart, abhors the system, tes- 
tifies against it as unrighteous, and does what he can 
to bring it to an end, is guiltless compared with him, 
either at the South or North, who never owned a 
slave, but who says that Christianity sanctions slavery. 
The one is the unwilling victim of the system ; the 
other is the voluntary advocate of a principle which, if 
true, fixes on Christianity all the guilt of the system 
itself. The one exerts an influence which tends to 
destroy the system, the other an influence which tends 
to perpetuate it. The one utters a testimony, however 
feeble, in harmony with the voice of the Bible ; the 
other muffles God's trumpet, so that it can pour forth 
no note of warning, but only gentle sounds, which 
soothe rather than alarm the conscience of the op- 
pressor." 



156 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

This review comforted Timothy Gilbert, and made 
him a fast friend of its author. He welcomed a de- 
fender of the Scriptures from the ranks of his own 
denomination with greater pleasure, because men of 
distinction had in his estimation disgraced themselves, 
and done lasting injury to the cause of truth by fur- 
nishing infidels weapons by which they might with a 
promise of success assail the citadel of truth. This 
argument of Dr. Hague has remained uncontroverted, 
because it is uncontrovertible. It enables men who 
are not scholars to be true to the oppressed without 
being false to their faith in the gospel of Christ, and 
proves Christianity fit to win its way through all tribes 
of men, as a universal religion. It shows that the 
Messiah of ancient prophecy, who was to be the De- 
liverer of the oppressed and the Desire of all nations, 
the Preacher of liberty to the captive, has come and 
established his kingdom on the earth. 



i57 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DEDICATION OF TREMONT TEMPLE. THE DEATH OF 

MRS. GILBERT. SECOND MARRIAGE OF MR. GIL- 
BERT. TRIP TO EUROPE. CONSECRATION OF HIS 

PROPERTY TO THE CAUSE OF CHRIST. 

The dedication of Tremont Temple to the service 
of Almighty God was an event of special significance 
in the life of Timothy Gilbert. On June 26, 1843, he 
received the deed of Tremont Theatre, and put the 
same on record. Though he had wrought manfully 
in the anti-slavery cause, and, as we have seen, had 
carried on an extensive correspondence with missiona- 
ries, statesmen, and ministers, yet, could we have seen 
the under-currents of his life, we should have found that 
the one great object to which he had consecrated him- 
self, was the erection of a free place of public worship in 
the heart of Boston. He believed that such a building 
would exert a telling influence upon the history of all 
large cities, and help to stay the incoming wave of 
infidelity and Romanism. His tactics were worthy 
of a Grant. He determined to hold the centre of the 
line, believing that all would then be well. The 
crowded condition of the Baptist churches, the thou- 
sands of strangers and mechanics wandering in the 
streets, and uninvited and unwelcomed to the courts 
of the Lord's house, touched his heart and made him 
resolute in his purpose. 



I5S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The prejudice against the negro, the vital necessities 
of the poor and neglected, caused him to plan the 
erection of a building whose rental should defray ex- 
penses, and furnish in a hall, without cost to the 
church, accommodations for a multitude sufficiently 
large to make the support of a minister a burden so 
light that it might easily be borne by the poorest. 

He went into an estimate as to the amount which 
would be required from each individual, and pub- 
lished a card showing the results of one, two, three, 
and four pennies, contributed each week by the stated 
worshippers. .Impressed with the feasibility of the pro- 
ject, he purchased Tremont Theatre for some sixty thou- 
sand dollars, opened it for the service of Almighty God, 
and invited Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., to preach the 
first sermon before the theatre was changed, and then 
made it ready for the uses of worship. The work was 
completed, and the building was dedicated on Thurs- 
day evening. December 7. 1S43. A severe snow-storm 
that had prevailed during the day, and which contin- 
ued with much violence in the evening, induced the 
fear that few would be present. Those who are un- 
acquainted with the anxiety felt by the burden-bearers 
of an enterprise of this magnitude, can hardly appre- 
ciate their solicitude in such an hour. 

Deacon Gilbert's faith shone forth conspicuously 
on such occasions. He did his whole duty, and then 
trusted to God for a blessing. On this occasion, as 
on many others, his faith met its sure reward. Over 
fifteen hundred persons were present at the opening 
of the meeting. The services were commenced with 
a voluntary on the organ and anthem. The Rev. Mr. 
Caldicott offered the invocation. Scriptures were 



DEDICATION OF TREMONT TEMPLE. 1 59 

read by Rev. John O. Choules, when the following 
hymn, written for the occasion by the pastor, Rev. 
Mr. Colver, was sung : — 

Great God, before thy reverend name, 
"Within these ransomed walls, we bow ; 

Too long abused to sin and shame, 
To thee we consecrate them now. 

Satan has here held empire long, — 

A blighting curse, a cruel reign, — 
By mimic scenes, and mirth, and song, 

Alluring souls to endless pain. 

Fiction no more ! God's truth, at last* 

Shall here portray eternal scenes ; 
The gospel peal the battle blast, 

Or charm with Calvary's gentler strains. 

Here set thy feet, Zion's King, 

And send thy victories all abroad ; 
Blest Dove, distil from balmy wing 

The dew of life — the grace of God. 

Thus let the glorious war go on, 

The banner of the cross unfurled ; 
Soon the last triumph shall be won> 

And Christ possess a ransomed world* 

Sermon, by the pastor, from John xii. 31, 32. Anthem. 
Dedicatory prayer, by Rev. William Hague, D. D. 
The second hymn was written by H. S. Washburn, 
Esq. : — 

O Thou who canst create anew, 

And change the dross to purest gold, 
This house — which once its votaries drew 

To scenes of vice, when vice grew bold — 



l6o MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Accept as thine, Jehovah, King, 

New-formed and fashioned for thy praise ; 

And overshadow with thy wing 
The altar that to thee we raise. 

And long may youth and hoary age — 

Come up to worship in thy fear, 
And hand, and heart, and voice engage 

To bless the God of Jacob here. 

O God supreme, thy power maintain, 

And turn the hearts of men to thee ; 
Till He whose right it is shall reign, 

Lord of the heavens, the earth, the sea. 

After which, the service was concluded with the bene- 
diction, by Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D. D. 

The " Daily Mail," in noticing it, says, " Mr. Colver 
carries a very brier in his hand, and sinners must look 
out or they will be touched in tender places. He is 
no time-server. He preaches for eternity. There is 
no half work about the worthy pastor ; he cries aloud 
and spares not. His sermon was founded on the 
proposition that the cross of Christ is both the pledge 
and the instrumentality for the defeat of Satan's plans 
and the overthrow of his kingdom. It was concluded 
by a series of reflections and an argument in favor of 
houses of worship with free seats." " Here, within 
these walls, men of all ranks, conditions, and com- 
plexions, are on an equality. The rich, the polite, the 
fashionable, are welcomed, but only on condition that 
the poor man, meanly attired, may occupy the seat 
beside them. All, without distinction, are invited to 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. l6l 

come up hither, listen to God's truth faithfully dis- 
pensed, and worship before high Heaven." 

The old building differed in many respects from the 
one now occupied by the church. The lecture-room 
measured eighty-eight by ninety feet. It contained 
two hundred and eighty pews, measuring three thou- 
sand feet in length, and would seat over two thousand 
persons. But its galleries projected badly over the 
audience, and it lacked the symmetry and elegant pro- 
portions that go to make the hall of the present Tem- 
ple the finest auditorium of its size in the world. The 
chapels in the old building were not as extensive nor 
as convenient as are the present rooms of the Meio- 
nion and Vestry. But the edifice was an arrow-shol 
ahead of anything then in existence in the United 
States. It was declared to be an ornament to the 
city, and the hope was expressed that it might prove 
of immense advantage to the cause of truth and 
righteousness. " The public and the Tremont Street 
church," so says the " Reflector," " are indebted chiefly 
to the enterprise and liberality of Deacon Timothy 
Gilbert, for the speedy and successful accomplishment 
of this noble work. Others have done what they were 
able, but on no man has the burden rested so heavily, 
and by no one could it have been borne more cheer- 
fully than it has been by him. We congratulate him 
and his coadjutors on what God has enabled them to 
do, and commend the church, with its pastor, to the 
blessing of Him who must build the house, or they 
labor in vain who build it." 

It is seldom the day of adversity is set so closely 
over against the day of prosperity, as was the case on 



l62 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

this occasion. While every heart was jubilant with 
joy, and flooded with the radiance of hope, a cloud 
was gathering over the sky of him who had climbed 
to his Pisgah and had seen his Canaan. His wife, 
devotedly pious, was accustomed to share with her 
husband in his trials and labors and sacrifices for the 
cause of Christ, not as though they burdened, but as 
though they blessed her. She had entered with delight 
into the work of building Tremont Temple, and with- 
out a murmur saw her private fortune imperilled for 
the public good. The snow-storm, though it did not 
deprive the Temple of an audience, was the cause of 
her sickness and sudden death. The carriage in which 
she rode to church was given to one, who, in her 
opinion, needed it more than herself, while she walked 
home through the snow ; and that night, while her 
husband was asleep, the shadow from the wing of the 
death-angel fell upon the partner of his life. 

Her moan awaked him. Leaping up and striking 
a light, he found her suffering from paralysis. Every- 
thing that medical skill could devise was tried, but in 
vain. In one brief week Timothy Gilbert followed 
to the grave the joy of his heart and the light of his 
eyes, at the age of forty-seven years and five months. 
The papers of the time bear abundant testimony to her 
worth. " We might," said a friend in the " Reflector," 
" write a long eulogy upon her character and life : her 
quiet, unobtrusive, ever-useful way of living makes her 
pathway to heaven luminous." The number of min- 
isters, missionaries, and of men, who, as youth, were 
made welcome to her table, and made happy by her 
society, attests her hospitality,' generosity, and worth. 



DEATH OF MRS. GILBERT. 1 63 

Among the number is Hon. H. S. Washburn, who 
wrote this brief tribute to her character, which was 
sung at her funeral, December 16, 1843 : — 

Calmly to thy grave we bear thee ; 

Sainted mother, take thy rest ! 
Tears will flow, but trust in Jesus 

Shall assuage the wounded breast. 

Widows mourn that thou hast fallen, 

Orphans shed the bitter tear, 
And the House of Zion weepeth : 

Who is not a mourner here ? 

Quickly from us did thy spirit 

Unto glory pass away ; 
But as twilight shadows linger, 

Will thy blest example stay. 

Calmly to thy grave we bear thee ; 

Soft will be thy lowly bed ; 
Tears will flow, but drops of gladness 

Mingle with the tears we shed. 

On February 1, 1844, there appears in the "Re- 
flector" this beautiful expression of the high regard 
which another entertained for her character : — 

Kindness all her looks expressed ; 

Charity was every word ; 
Her the eye beheld and blessed, 

And the ear rejoiced that heard. 

Wealth with free, unsparing hand, 

To the poorest child of need, 
This she threw around the land, 

Like the sower's precious seed. 



164 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Oft her silent spirit went, 

Like an angel from the throne, 
On benign commissions bent, 

In the fear of God alone. 

Then the widow's heart would sing, 
As her home with comfort smiled, 

And the bliss of hope would spring, 
On the outcast orphan child. 

Help to all she did dispense — 

Gold, instruction, raiment, food, 
Like the gifts of Providence, 

To the evil and the good. 

Deeds of mercy, deeds unknown, 

Shall eternity record, 
Which she durst not call her own, 

For she did them to the Lord. 

Sudden, yet prepared, she died ; 

And, victorious in the race, 
Won the crown for which she vied, 

Not of merit, but of grace. 

Among the letters of condolence received are two 
or three that deserve notice. On January 2, 1844, Rev. 
Jacob Knapp wrote Mr. G. from Wilmington, Del., 
" We felt very sensibly the shock when we opened your 
letter and read the sentence, ' My dear wife is dead.' 
But, as you say, your loss is her gain. I know not that 
I ever found the person in all my travels who was 
more crucified to the world, more entirely consecrated 
to God, more constantly and ardently breathing out 
that spirit of benevolence and good will to man which 
the gospel inspires, than your dear departed compan- 



LETTER FROM DR. SHARP. 1 65 

ion ; and you and many others have reason to be 
thankful that God had spared her to you so long, that 
she was permitted to see your only child brought up 
and converted before she was taken from you. We 
shall never forget her kindness to us. She was all 
that an own mother could be to my wife, children, 
and myself; and beyond all doubt she is now reaping 
her reward. The time is short that remains for us to 
work. Soon you will all meet again before the throne 
of God, for I believe you can say it is well with me, 
it is well with my wife, it is well with the child." 

The following letter was received by Mr. Gilbert 
from his early pastor. It shows that though they were 
walking in separate paths, yet the bonds of sympathy 
remained unbroken : — 

Boston, December 15, 1843. 

Afflicted Friend : I most sincerely sympathize 
with you in your irreparable loss. May the Father 
of spirits support you under this sudden and very af- 
fecting bereavement. I knew your dear Mary, now 
no more, from the time she was quite a young woman ; 
and I do say, with truth, but with a melancholy pleas- 
ure, that amid all the changes and fluctuations of life, 
I have never for a moment ceased to love and respect 
her for her many most excellent traits of character. 

She was, in my view, distinguished for good sense, 
great candor and kindness, a thoughtful consideration 
of the poor, and a consistent Christian piety. She 
will be a loss to the community, and a loss to the 
church, of which she was an active and worthy mem- 
ber, — and O, what a loss to you and your daughter ! 



1 66 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Well ! Be still, and know that He who hath permitted 
this sad event is God. 

I shall leave the city to-morrow, or I would have 
attended the funeral as a token of my sincere sympathy 
for you and regard for her memory. 
Yours truly, 

Daniel Sharp. 
Mr. Timothy Gilbert. 

But Mr. G. could not pause long at the grave. The 
current of life swept him on, and the cause of Christ 
demanded his energies and his time. He did not get 
along well without a home. His daughter was at this 
time away at school, and he felt alone. In the course 
of time he became acquainted with Miss Alice Davis, 
a member of the First Baptist Church, who became 
his wife November 28, 1844. In this choice he felt, 
and had cause to feel, that the Spirit of God guided 
him. She made his home as happy as a home could 
well be. In prosperity, as in adversity, she shared his 
thoughts, heard what he wrote, knew his plans, 
watched his moods, and gave him in her heart a 
refuge from the storms that beset his path. 

In writing to her, he reveals his indebtedness to 
his first wife, his anxiety for the church, and his hope 
that her influence and watchcare may stimulate him 
to the better discharge of his Christian duties. 

In 1846 they adopted Alice, born April 23, 1846, 
and in the following year, April 27, Martha Fear 
Gilbert was born. The heartiest of welcomes was 
given to this last birdling. In 1851 Mr. Gilbert and 
wife found relaxation in a trip to Europe, which 



NATHANIEL R. COBB. 167 

afforded enjoyment and rest. During his absence Mr. 
G. wrote letters to the church, to his pastor, and to 
his workmen, describing the scenes best calculated to 
interest them. 

Nathaniel Ripley Cobb, who was born near Port- 
land, November 3, 1798, and who died on the 22d of 
May, 1834, exerted a powerful influence upon the life 
and fortunes of Mr. Gilbert. Mr. Cobb was one year 
younger than his friend, had been baptized one year 
later, and met him for the first time in Charles Street 
Baptist Church in 1819. In 182 1, Mr. Cobb drew up 
and signed the following document : " By the grace of 
God, I will never be worth more than fifty thousand 
dollars. I will give one fourth of the net profits of my 
business to religious and charitable purposes. If I 
am ever worth twenty thousand dollars, I will give 
half of my net income. If I am ever worth thirty 
thousand dollars, I will give three fourths, and the 
whole after fifty thousand dollars." To this purpose 
he religiously adhered. Mr. Gilbert, though he was 
never permitted to acquire an independent fortune, 
yet, as a contributor for benevolent purposes, he takes 
rank with the foremost men of his time. His course 
towards the poor won for him the title of " Banker for 
the Poor." Hundreds deposited with him their sav- 
ings. Mechanics, apprentices, and sewing women, 
all felt that their money was safe in his hands. 

Great numbers came to him for loans — most of 
them for small amounts. Instances of young men com- 
ing to borrow one hundred dollars are remembered. 
He would turn from his desk, search them with his 
keen black eye, inquire into the condition of their 



l6S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

business and prospects, and then, after ascertaining 
their wants, would frequently rebuke them for not 
planning more wisely, when, the lecture over, he w r ould 
place an adequate sum in their hands, and turn to his 
work. 

Timothy Gilbert's consecration to Christ of all he 
had deserves mention. We find in his own hand- 
writing a paper which reads as follows : — 

" Having, as I trusty through the grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ and the influence of his Holy Spirit, been 
renewed and made an heir of the heavenly inheritance 
which shall endure forever, and whereas, through the 
blessing of God upon my efforts, and his guidance in 
my business affairs, he has given me a portion of this 
world's goods, and thus, with it the means of doing good 
to my fellow-men, and at this time is giving indica- 
tions of still greater enlargement of my pecuniary 
resources, which, with the examples around me, may 
tempt me to adopt a more expensive style of living 
by indulging in luxuries which I now think incon- 
sistent with the claims of my Redeemer, who said, 
t Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God,' — I 
therefore solemnly promise to hold all I now have of 
this world's goods, as well as my time and my in- 
fluence, as the Lord's, and to enter into no speculation 
or engagement in business or expense for myself or 
my family or relatives, either for travelling, recreation, 
amusement, or dress, furniture, dwellings, or in any 
other respect that I do not conscientiously, in the fear 
of the Lord, think would be in accordance with his 
will, and meet his favor and approbation, and that 
I will daily ask him to guide me in all these things, 



BURNING OF TREMONT TEMPLE. 1 69 

and only prosper me in my business and other plans 
so far as they are in accordance with his will. And I 
hereby engage to my holy Redeemer, that I will volun- 
tarily hold all the property I now possess of every 
kind, as well as myself, subject to his will, not seeking 
to lay up in store for the future wants of my family, 
remembering the promise that the ' Lord will provide,' 
and that if I act the part of a faithful steward, it will 
be safer to trust in him for our future requirements 
than in any invested earthly treasure." In like man- 
ner he provided that the revenue from his business 
should be consecrated to the glory of God. Beneath 
the signature of our lamented brother may be found 
this sentence : "I heartily concur with my husband in 
the foregoing. Alice Gilbert, June 19, 1850." 

At this time, be it remembered, the profits from his 
business amounted to some ten to fifteen thousand dol- 
lars per annum. 

Under date of July 28, 1853, in pencil, it is recorded, 
" Since the foregoing was written, the Lord has 
greatly changed my prospects in business, has almost 
entirely cut off all hope of success, has brought me 
into circumstances of great pecuniary anxiety and 
peril, so that my fears are excited lest I shall not be 
able to pay my just debts, and thereby become bank- 
rupt. Besides all this, the Lord has hidden his face 
from me, so that I cannot see and behold the face of a 
reconciled God and Father — cannot get a nearness to 
him by prayer." 

Pause here and consider the facts. In 1850 he was at 
the zenith of his prosperity. We have seen him laying 
his all on God's altar. The consecration was made 
8 



170 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

June 19. We have seen him imperilling life and 
property in September of the same year in carrying 
out the principle of the commandment, " Whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them." 

Three years are gone. On the night of March 31, 
1S52, Tremont Temple was burned. We have not 
time to dwell upon the gloom which overspread the 
church, and which overshadowed the deacon's heart. 
The debt on the original building was being extin- 
guished by the revenue. The church was paying 
annually twelve hundred dollars towards its extinction. 
What shall be done? Turn now to another memo- 
randum, and we find, under his own hand, a confirma- 
tion of this statement, namely : " Deacon Gilbert, to 
whose sacrificing labors and untiring zeal this enter- 
prise especially owed its origin, and very much of its 
success thus far, urged from convictions of duty the 
necessity of going forward in the work. On the 25th 
of May, the foundation of the present edifice was laid. 
The large Temple was first occupied on December 
25, 1853. Ten years and eighteen days after the first 
Temple was dedicated, the second building, grander, 
larger, and more expensive than the first, was conse- 
crated to the service of Almighty God." 

Bear in mind that we have been reading from a 
paper signed July, 1853. At the time it was written 
he had placed his all in the scales for God. He had 
kept his vow. Ruin was before him, but he dared not 
stop, and the heaviest of all his sorrows came from the 
withdrawal of the Saviour's face. 

Farther on he writes, " I know he is good, and will 



HIS RESOLUTION. 171 

be, and that I cannot withhold an acknowledgment 
of his goodness and righteousness, even if he sends me 
to perdition/' 

Picture the scene. There is a man, whose private 
fortune is threatened, staggering under an additional 
burden of two hundred thousand dollars, which is in- 
creasing every moment, and yet there is no reference 
to it, or to anything else he has done or. attempted. 

Again he writes, " If He takes from me everything, 
I beg of him not to suffer me to complain. All I ask 
is, that he will permit me to pay my just debts, so that 
no one to whom I am indebted shall ever suffer by me. 
But more especially so that the cause of our blessed 
Master may not be injured or reproached by anything 
I have done or failed to do. Beyond that I commit 
myself, my dear and beloved wife, my children, and 
grandchildren, to the tender care of Him who careth 
for us all, and who is as kind when he afflicts as when 
we think he blesses us in worldly matters." 

Having emerged into the sunshine, we find this 
prayer : " O Lord, let it ever be the feeling of my heart 
to exclaim with David, ' I shall be satisfied when I 
awake in thy likeness,' perfectly pure and holy. O, 
let this be my portion, and I ask no other." Again 
he cries, " ' Lift thou up upon me the light of thy coun- 
tenance, and let me see thy glory.' T. G." 

Another memorandum, upon the top of which is 
written, " This will explain itself" must follow 
here : — 

" Fearing that my pecuniary credit may suffer in the 
event of my sudden decease, as I have reason to fear 



17- MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

may happen, and as no one knows the facts of my 
history as I know them, I make this memorandum, 
written on the 13th of August, i860, for the informa- 
tion of friends who may desire to learn the motives by 
which my life was influenced : — 

"When I first began in business with Mr. E. R. 
Currier I had very moderate expectations, and when I 
left him and we dissolved, nry anticipations were very 
moderate, and even less than at first. 

" But gradually die Lord prospered me ; and when, 
in 1843, because I felt that God called me to do it, I, 
with others, purchased the Tremont Theatre, and fit- 
ted it up for a place of worship, I did it — because I 
dared not do otherwise — under a deep sense of my pe- 
cuniary weakness, and relying wholly upon the Lord. 
To my surprise the Lord most wonderfully prospered 
my business, and this enterprise, which was never in- 
tended, from first to last, to be of any pecuniary benefit 
to me individually, or to either of the others associ- 
ated with me in the undertaking, proved to be a bless- 
ing. Without ascribing undue praise to my own exer- 
tions, I claim that it is not probable that either or all 
of the trustees would have undertaken the enterprise 
if I had not urged them on. Previous to 1852 the 
Temple was in a fair way to pay its debts from its in- 
come, in fifteen years there being but thirty thousand 
three hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighty-five 
cents remaining. 

"In 1852, when the old building was destroyed, and 
the question of rebuilding or abandoning the enter- 
prise was to be decided, I again felt a necessity laid 
upon me to rebuild, as it seemed to me to be practica- 



PECUNIARY TROUBLES. 1 73 

ble, although brother Gould was opposed to it, and 
brother Shipley only consented providing it could be 
done without his assuming any personal responsibility 
beyond what was necessary to make contracts or ex- 
ecute mortgages. Brother Damrell joined me in fa- 
voring it, without reservation. 

" When completed, the building was found to have 
cost more than double the amount we had first esti- 
mated. This, I found, was more than I could man- 
age, even with the credit of the firm, which was freely 
used with the consent of Mr. Jameson, who was my 
only partner at the time. Hence I found it absolutely 
necessary to sell the property to save all concerned 
from bankruptcy. 

" Our firm had been doing business with , of 

New York, and his indebtedness had become large, 
which, with the Temple debts, made it seem impos- 
sible to stop with him ; and therefore we had com- 
menced, and did continue, to renew his paper, and to 
send him more property, hoping he would reduce 
his indebtedness to us thereby, until, when he failed, 
he owed us over thirty thousand dollars ; and in the 
end it was a total loss of not less than twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars, most of which would probably have been 
saved, had we been free from the debts of Tremont 
Temple, so that we might have refused to renew his 
paper or send him merchandise. Fearing to so act, 
lest his paper would all come upon us, we shrank 
from the responsibility, and bore it as best we could." 

Here is a gleam of satisfaction. " Had his failure 
occurred only a few months sooner, our firm and the 
whole Temple enterprise would have been involved 



1/4 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

in hopeless ruin. The Temple debts were assumed 
by those who took the property off our hands ; yet 

there is no doubt our loss by is mainly owing 

to our connection with the Temple at the same time. 

" I leave this as my dying testimony, that the Tem- 
ple church may know, and all others, that there was 
no other alternative that I could see, but that the prop- 
erty must be sold to save it from immediate ruin. 

" And now our firm owes debts of honor that we 
at present are wholly unable to pay or secure, owing 
to our struggles with these embarrassments for years in 
a dull and oppressed state of trade. We had hoped 
from year to year that we might again have a return 
of prosperity, such as characterized us in former years, 
when our profits ranged from ten to fifteen thousand 
dollars per annum. 

" For more than three years past we have been hold- 
ing on for some improvement in trade, and all the time 
we have been losing rather than gaining in our means. 
We could not stop without loss and suffering to others, 
and not having lost all hope of bettering our condi- 
tion, we kept on. If others are finally left to suffer by 
this means, what I ask of them is, for Christ's sake, to 
forgive — those of my family and friends who are left 
destitute, not by extravagant living or worthless ex- 
penditures, but by an honest endeavor to rescue my 
affairs from misfortune and to serve God with my 
means. I ask for my dear wife and children the sym- 
pathy of those who have suffered by me. I have kept 
nothing back for myself or family, as the Lord knows. 

"T. Gilbert. 

"August 16, I860." 



PECUNIARY TROUBLES. 1 75 

Review the scene, and behold that noble form, bent 
with burdens too heavy to be borne, leaving this 
record for the church and the world, and praying for 
forgiveness and asking sympathy for wife and children. 
There is sublimity in his humility, and grandeur in his 
patience. 

It is something to lose property, but more to lose 
position. This was his next trial. He was elected 
a director of the Boylston Bank, October 6, 1854. 
Three months afterwards, January 9, 1855, ^ e was 
chosen president, and served the institution with great 
fidelity until financial difficulties made it his duty to 
tender his resignation, which was accepted November 
19, i860. 

Uncomplainingly he laid down the trust which had 
been to him a source of mingled pleasure and profit. 
He bore with him to his retirement the confidence of 
the directors. They believed him to be incorruptibly 
honest, kind to a fault, when it was in his power to 
help a friend, and stern, if not stubborn, when some 
principle was at stake which demanded protection and 
support. 



176 



CHAPTER IX. 

CAUSES WHICH LED TO THE RESIGNATION OF REV. 

N. COLVER. MR. GILBERT'S CHARACTER IN A NEW 

LIGHT. DEFECTS OF EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACH- 
ING. — HIS VIEWS CONCERNING SALARY, AND STUDY, 
AND VISITING. 

History should be impartial. It seldom is. Biog- 
raphies should be truthful. They seldom are. The 
Bible way is the best way. That presents men as they 
were. Their faults and virtues intermingle. David 
sinned. We know what were the consequences and 
the condemnation, Moses made one glaring mistake. 
It stands forth unconcealed. A story is told of a min- 
ister in Virginia who had a horse that had faults. His 
black servant offered to exchange him. He started on 
his mission, and chanced to come to a brook where a 
stranger was watering a horse that delighted the eye 
of this comzoissettr of horse flesh. He proposed a 
trade. The stranger inquired the reason. The ser- 
vant replied, " This horse has two serious faults." 
"What are they?" " One is, my master is a minister, 
and the horse is white, and every time he goes to 
preach he gets covered with white hair." " Well, 
what is the other ? " The African scratched his head, 
and declared he did not just remember what the other 
fault was. The man, supposing that it was something 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MR. GILBERT. l>]>] 

like the first, transferred his saddle, and exchanged 
horses. The next day he brought him back in a wild 
frenzy, exclaiming, " You black rascal, this horse is 
blind ! " " O, yes," said the servant, " that is the other 
fault." 

In writing biographies many forget the great faults, 
and only notice the minor ones. A man, as God made 
him, means something. He is a schoolmaster, and 
teaches lessons by his faults as well as by his virtues. 

The character of Deacon Gilbert had its sharp cor- 
ners, its obtrusive angles. He had virtues that will 
keep his memory green for years, and faults that will 
be remembered until this generation are in their graves. 
That God's glory was secured by them, or in spite of 
them, will appear. 

He was an earnest advocate for special means of 
grace for the conversion of souls. His pastor could 
not toil too earnestly in that direction. His brethren 
and sisters shared the desire. The church is revival- 
loving, and in earnest. Clement Drew and Joseph 
Sherwin, his associate deacons, with Nathaniel Colver, 
their pastor, were men well calculated to prosecute the 
harvest work. 

Whenever the prospects grew dark for the cause of 
truth, and the clouds of infidelity began to lower, a 
day of fasting, and humiliation, and prayer was the 
alternative to which they gladly turned. 

In the support of a pastor he had peculiar, and, we 
think, erroneous views. It was doubtless a mistake 
which grew out of the organization of his nature. He 
believed that the Temple could never be a resort for 
the rich. He therefore acted upon the principle that 
8* 



I 7$ MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

it must be made the home for the very poor. He 
forgot the middling classes that are liberal to a fault, 
the strangers who cheerfully contribute to .the support 
of the gospel, and the men of brain, of heart, and 
wealth who could sympathize with his thought, and 
sacrifice for the promotion of the cause which lay near 
his heart. 

This caused him to feel that the salary of the pastor 
should never exceed a thousand dollars, and that the 
residue should be provided for, by voluntary contribu- 
tions. Hence, while he objected to raising the salary, 
he gave cheerfully and largely for the education of the 
children of the pastor, and for such other objects as 
appealed to his generosity. In religious as in other 
matters, he was exacting, and so became a trial to his 
pastor, and oftentimes to his friends. His zeal was 
quenchless. It never knew abatement. He felt that 
others should be like him. 

He could not understand the necessity which makes 
it imperative for a minister to seek recreation in other 
pursuits. Mr. Colver had an inventive genius, and 
was fond of tools. Lyman Beecher sawed wood. 
Nathaniel Colver got up designs for spring beds and 
what not. Deacon Gilbert had little or no sympathy 
with these pursuits, and would quite likely inquire as 
to the condition of some sick sister or some inquiring 
soul, when the pastor was in a glow over some new 
invention ; thus rebuking him in his quiet and provok- 
ing way for neglect. Indeed to such an extent did this 
disposition lead him, that in consequence of it, more 
than all else, was the first pastor of the Tremont 
Street Church led to resign. The correspondence is 



CHARACTERISTICS OF MR. GILBERT. 1 79 

kind, and reveals the characteristics of the two men. 
The one Was an eloquent extemporaneous preacher, 
who had fought a good fight, who could get up a 
sermon with but little trouble, who was ever ready for 
a discussion, who was quick at a retort, witty when 
not savage, and always open-handed and open-hearted. 
He did not work three hundred and sixty-five days in 
a year as he worked on some special occasions. Had 
he done so, he would never have accomplished those 
tasks, and ploughed those furrows in Boston which 
even now ridge the past. 

The other was a deacon full of one engrossing 
thought. Everything • must bend to that. Business, 
pleasure, society, everything was made secondary. 
His hand was ever on the handle of the bellows. But 
he never did, and he never could have succeeded without 
the help of his giant brother, w r ho toiled and rested. 

Deacon Gilbert did not appreciate this fact, and so 
worried the life and disturbed the peace of his pastor. 
His views in regard to the management of men were, 
to some extent, erroneous. He had in him a way 
which sometimes seemed despotic, yet he did not wish 
to tyrannize. He felt very keenly, and his feelings 
would reveal themselves in unpropitious ways and at 
unpropitious times. We do not claim that his pastor 
was wholly in the right. That the deacon had good 
and sufficient reasons for his conduct none can deny. 
It is known that Mr. Colver was not at all times equal. 
His very temperament made him great for an emer- 
gency, and commonplace on ordinary occasions. 

He will not agree with this opinion, nor will that 
class who pride themselves on their ability in extern- 



I So MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

poraneous speaking ; yet it remains true that a man 
who speaks without a written sermon cannot retain 
that freshness, that variety, that copiousness in lan- 
oTiasre which the man can who writes. 

The extemporaneous preacher runs into ruts, in his 
divisions of his discourse, in his language, and in the 
forms of expression, which would be changed at the 
table with a pen in his hand. On his feet a man will 
say the most forcible word, and adopt the most forcible 
form of expression that occurs to him at the moment. 
It is quite natural for the expression that occurred to 
him the week previous to occur again. Let Dr. Colver, 
with his mighty power as an expositor, and, in getting 
at the i; nut" and " cracking it" and " taking out the 
meat," let him preach before any audience for years, 
and he will feel the need of the products which are 
only gleaned on the harvest fields of a pastor's study. 
This being the state of the case, Deacon Gilbert saw 
in every new invention of his pastor a barrier to those 
pursuits which were essential to success. 

Another truth deserves to be told. Deacon Gilbert 
thought that there should be more visiting done by the 
pastor. The workshop, in his opinion, stood in the 
way of that, and so, he claimed, inquirers were neg- 
lected, and the sick were forgotten. This pained him, 
and he attempted to remedy the difficulties in his own 
way. That visiting must be done all admit. That a 
pastor who has been settled for years in a place, learns 
to neglect this duty the first of any is also true. Visit- 
ing accumulates. It becomes like a mountain. In the 
Temple it is a very high mountain. To see all is im- 
possible. To satisfy the desire is alike impossible. 



EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING. 151 

To neglect all is the natural result. Again he felt, 
that, while his pastor was mighty in the Scriptures 
and in argument, his sermons lacked freshness, be- 
cause he did not visit and come in contact with the 
wants of the sick and poor, and that they lacked 
beauty, because, though the principle of the text was 
evolved, there was little of the graces of oratory which 
characterized the periods of an Everett, who polished 
every sentence with care, and fashioned every passage 
after some classic model of excellence. 

That he was right we do not affirm. That study 
pays ; that ploughing in the closet helps the harvests 
of the pulpit ; that there is no place in the world 
where culture, fancy, imagination, toil, and erudition 
yield such dividends as when employed by him who 
faces from week to week an audience of intelligent, 
of tired, of hungry men, is abundantly apparent. 

The full houses in our large cities are the counter- 
parts of full brains and full hearts. The tricks of 
oratory, its studied graces, everything that allures, and 
attracts, and commands when exhibited in the pulpit, 
meets with a welcome from the pew. 

Admitting that this statement of the case is correct, 
how shall the result be reached ? By starving a man, 
and finding fault with him, or by encouraging him ? 

There are men who would have gone to Mr. Colver, 
and said, " Sir, you have mighty powers of oratory. 
Your imagination is brilliant. Your capacity to visit, 
to administer to the social wants of the people, and to 
exert an influence over your ministering brethren is 
immense. Please bend every energy to the fulfilment 
of your mission, and we will place your salary where 



I S3 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

your living need not enter into your thoughts." Adopt 
such a course, and there is not a minister on earth 
who knows Christ but would concentrate every power 
of his mind and heart. 

The opposite course w r as pursued. Advice was given, 
questions were asked, at times when no man could 
bear it, as, for instance, when about entering the pulpit 
or prayer-meeting ; and then, to add to all the rest, 
the salary was raised in spite of, rather than w T ith, the 
consent of the one who gave the advice. The follow- 
ing gives an insight to his views concerning the subject : 

" I have frequently, and that recently, said that you 
deserved a large salary, as much and more than any 
of the ministers in the city ; for no one that had even 
two thousand dollars gave away as much as you did, 
and did not entertain so many of the poor ministers 
from the country ; and, if it could be raised, I should 
with all my heart advocate your having it. But I have 
never thought your salary should have been raised 
above twelve hundred dollars, and have never voted 
for the increase when made, yet have always said I 
was willing to pay my proportion even of the advance, 
and should undoubtedly in some way have done some- 
thing myself for you, if it had not been raised, as I 
did while it was only one thousand dollars. I still 
think it was a mistake in raising it. I well remember 
that one of the causes that operated in my own mind 
as an objection to raising it was that I feared it would 
be the cause of your removal. Knowing that more than 
nine tenths of all our members did not get even one half 
of twelve hundred dollars to support their families upon, 
therefore I believed, and I think the sequel has proved 



pastor's salary. 183 

me correct that it would be harder to get our members 
who are poor to do what they could if your salary was 
fifteen hundred dollars than it would if it was twelve 
hundred dollars or less. And I sincerely and conscien- 
tiously think that while our church and congregation are 
composed of the class it now is and must necessarily be, 
until the debt of the house is so reduced as to make that 
easy, the salary should never exceed one thousand dol- 
lars. After the debt is provided for, there may be more 
of a temptation for persons of property to join us. Until 
then one thousand dollars is the highest salary we ought 
to think of paying, and, if any can give as individuals be- 
sides, let them do so. It was with these views I helped 

in educating when you first came among us, so as 

to keep the salary at least nominally lower, and experi- 
ence convinces me that I was correct in my judgment." 
These were his views. It is unfortunate that he 
cherished them, both because of the influence they 
exerted upon others and upon himself. When it was 
shown him that Tremont Temple could never be made 
a success in this way, he readily abandoned the main 
features of his plan. He saw that it was easier to 
support a man who can command a large salary than 
it is to support one of the opposite class. Though the 
majority of the people worshipping in a free-seated 
house of worship may be poor, it does not follow that 
they are mean. The young men who throng the gal- 
leries are ever ready to respond to appeals for aid, as 
was repeatedly shown during the war. They spend 
money for pleasure, for society, and are quite as will- 
ing, if not more willing, to consecrate a portion of 
their earnings to the support of the cause of Christ. 



I S4 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The character of the congregation seems not to have 
been understood. When, under the new regime, it 
was proposed to raise the large proportion of the 
salary by subscription, none were more surprised than 
were the oldest worshippers at the Temple when the 
returns came in which provided an income of over 
five thousand dollars to meet current expenses. When 
the claims of societies which had hitherto been ig- 
nored were presented, the subscriptions in their behalf 
reached a large sum. When the echoes of the guns 
at Antietam disturbed the quiet of the Sabbath, and 
caused the cry to run from church to church, that 
worship should be suspended, and that the worship- 
pers should betake themselves to the preparation of 
lint, Tremont Temple was thrown open, and the prod- 
uct of the labor there bestowed found its way earliest 
to the battle-field. Afterwards, when Washington was 
beleaguered with foes, and the call came for minute 
men for action, the pastor explained the want, and two 
hundred men before Monday noon were enrolled for 
action. When the Christian Commission issued their 
call for aid, the subscription of the Temple stood 
grandly forth among the larger contributions for that 
worthy object. These facts reveal the character of 
the congregation, and prove that they can sustain any 
man who commands their respect and love. The gen- 
erous policy begets a generous spirit. It is no more 
difficult to make it fashionable to give than it is to 
make it popular to withhold. Mr. Gilbert was liberal 
to a fault himself, but had learned to doubt the lib- 
erality of others. When at last the church rallied 
round the banner, and placed their choicest gifts on 



HIS HAPPINESS. 185 

God's altar, and pledged their pastor a generous sup- 
port, and led off in all generous acts and deeds, none 
were happier, and none were in advance of Timothy 
Gilbert. His smiling face, his joyous speech, and 
thankful prayers revealed his appreciation of God's 
goodness to the Temple of his love and the people 
of his choice. 



i86 



CHAPTER X. 

RESIGNATION OF REV. NATHANIEL COLVER. TRE- 

MONT TEMPLE BURNT. A DESCRIPTION OF THE 

NEW TEMPLE. DEACON GILBERT'S VIEW OF THE 

ENTERPRISE. 

In 1852 Nathaniel Colver tendered his resignation 
as pastor of the Tremont Street Church. On the 30th 
of March he sent away his goods to Abington, and 
came to pass the night at the house of Deacon Gilbert. 
That night, at one o'clock, the bells rang the alarm 
for fire, and before four o'clock the Tremont Temple 
was in rains. 

" Who fathoms the Eternal Thought? 
Who talks of scheme and plan ? 
The Lord is God. He needeth not 
The poor device of man." 

Turning to the diary of Deacon Gilbert we natu- 
rally look for a murmur. We find it not. Is there 
no compunction of conscience? None. What was 
right yesterday is right to-day. Here is the record : — 

" This morning, about one o'clock, Tremont Tem- 
ple took fire, and was a heap of ruins by four A. M. 
Went down in the forenoon to T. Gould's, and met 
with trustees. — Evening. Church met at my house 
— from forty to fifty present." 



NEW TREMONT TEMPLE. 1 87 

Thursday he agitates the question of rebuilding. 
Friday the question is considered in a full meeting. 
Sabbath, Rev. N. Colver preaches his farewell ser- 
mon, in Marlboro' Chapel. Now begins his march 
from bank to insurance office, from trustees to archi- 
tect. His private business is neglected, and all for 
this. 

On Wednesday, April 7, the church hold a church 
meeting at his house, and vote to refer the matter of 
rebuilding the Temple to the trustees. What say 
the trustees? Here is the record in his own hand, 
and it shows that while others faltered he moved 
on : — 

" Brother Gould was opposed to it. Brother Ship- 
ley only consented providing it could be done without 
his assuming any personal responsibility beyond what 
was necessary to make contracts and execute mort- 
gages. Brother Damrell joined me in favoring it with- 
out reservation." 

This encouraged him. Day after day he is moving 
from point to point ; now attending to the clearing 
away of the ruins, now cheering on the halting, now 
arranging his affairs with the bank and consulting with 
his lawyer. On May 25 we find this entry: " This 
day commenced laying foundation to the new Tremont 
Temple." 

On the 25th of August, 1852, Deacon S. G. Shipley 
died ; and from this time his burdens increased. Each 
day you can see the walls are rising. He holds the 
measure and marks the progress made. On Decem- 
ber 25, 1853, the Tremont Temple was consecrated 
to public worship. A description of this building 



iSS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

furnishes a bird's eye view of the achievement won. 
Let us begin with 

The Exte7'ior of the Tremont Temple. 

Immediately opposite the Tremont House — and so 
near it that, when the walls of the old Temple fell into 
the street, the front of the hotel had a narrow escape — 
stands " The Stranger's Sabbath Home." Of a rich and 
warm brown tint, produced by a coating of mastic, it 
presents a peculiarly substantial and elegant frontage. 
It is seventy-five feet in height, and with the exception 
of ten feet by sixty-eight, which is left open on the 
north side for light, the building covers an area of 
thirteen thousand feet. 

The walls are massive and of great strength, vary- 
ing in thickness from thirty-six inches to sixteen inches, 
and, in accordance w^ith the most approved mode of 
building, are hollow. This, of course, insures great 
proportional strength, dry inside walls, a saving in 
furring and lathing by admitting of plastering upon 
the bricks, a prevention of the ravages of vermin, and 
greater resonance and adaptation to music in the walls 
of the large halls. It will be at once evident that this 
method, also, to a very considerable extent, obviates 
all danger of fire spreading, as it often does, and did 
to the destruction of the old Temple, between the plas- 
tering and the wall. Wherever, in the new building, 
it has been found necessary to use furring and plaster- 
ing, layers of brick have been placed to cut off all 
chance of fire spreading between the plastering from 
one story to another. The floors, too, have, as we 
shall, by and by, more particularly notice, a thick coat- 



EXTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE. 1 59 

ing of mortar between the upper and under courses 
of boards, as a protection against the spread of fire, 
and to prevent the transmission of sound. 

The summit of the Temple is crowned by a lofty 
cupola, and under it runs a bold and handsomely de- 
signed cornice. Immediately below the cornice are 
five arched recesses or niches, and under these the 
same number of lofty windows that light the front 
apartments, to be hereafter described. At the street 
level are four fine stores. In the centre is the princi- 
pal entrance door, painted in imitation of dark oak. 
The whole external appearance is imposing, and the 
building is worthy of the city of which it is at once 
an ornament and a convenience. 

The Entrance. 

Passing through the great central door-way, we find 
ourselves in a spacious lobby or entrance hall. On the 
first floor we observe, on our right, and on the first 
landing, the ticket office, and a broad flight of stairs on 
either hand, each of which, at its summit, terminates 
in a landing, from whence, to right and left, diverge 
two flights of similar staircases, one landing you in 
the centre of the main hall, and the other to the rear 
part and the gallery. 

The Main Hall, 

Or The Temple, as many style it from long-accus- 
tomed habit, although, in fact, it forms but one por- 
tion of it, is a commodious and magnificent audience- 
room. The utter absence of gilding and coloring on 
its walls renders it far more imposing and grand in 



I90 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

appearance than if it had been elaborately ornamented 
With auriferous and chromatic splendors. The follow- 
ing are its dimensions : It is one hundred and twenty- 
four feet long, seventy-two feet wide, and fifty feet high. 
Around the sides of it runs a gallery supported on 
trusses, so that no pillars intervene between the spec- 
tator and the platform to obstruct the view. The front 
of this gallery is balustraded, and by this means a 
very neat and uniform effect is secured. The side gal- 
leries project over the aisles below about seven feet. 
They are fitted with rows of nicely cushioned and 
comfortable seats, and are not so high as to render the 
ascent to them wearisome in the least degree. The 
front gallery, though it projects into the hall only ten 
feet, extends back far enough to give it more than 
three times that depth, and when filled with spectators, 
as it is on the Sabbath from week to week, presents 
a truly magnificent spectacle. 

Directly opposite this gallery is the platform, with 
its gracefully panelled, semicircular front. This plat- 
form, covered with a neat oil-cloth, communicates with 
the side galleries by a few steps, for the convenience 
of the choir. There are also several avenues of com- 
munication from the platform to the apartments, dress- 
ing-rooms, &c, behind, which are exceedingly con- 
venient, and are far superior to the places of exit and 
entrance from, and to, any other place of the kind that 
we have ever seen. 

From the front of the platform the floor of the hall 
gradually rises, so as to afford every person in the hall 
a full and unobstructed view of the speakers or vocal- 
ists, as the case may be. The seats in the galleries 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. 191 

rise in like manner. The seats on the hall floor are 
admirably arranged in a semicircular form from the 
front of the platform, so that every face is directed to- 
wards the speaker or singer. They are numbered uni- 
formly, have iron ends, are capped with mahogany, 
and are completely cushioned with a drab-colored ma- 
terial. Each slip is capable of containing ten or twelve 
persons, with an aisle at each extremity, and open 
from end to end. 

The side walls of the hall are very beautifully orna- 
mented in panels, arched and decorated with circular 
ornaments, which it would be difficult properly to de- 
scribe without the aid of accompanying drawings ; 
but as views of the interior of the Temple have be- 
come common, the omission here will be of little con- 
sequence. As we intimated, there is no fancy col- 
oring ; it is a decorated and relieved surface of dead 
white, and the effect, lighted as it is from above by 
large panes of rough plate glass, is beautifully chaste. 
The only color observable in the hall is the purple 
screen behind the diamond open-work at the back of 
the platform, and which forms a screen in front of the 
organ. The effect of this solitary "bit" of coloring 
is remarkably fine. 

The ceiling is very finely designed in squares, at the 
intersections of which are twenty-eight gas-burners, 
which, with strong reflectors, and a chandelier over the 
orchestra, shed a mellow but ample light over the hall. 
By this arrangement, the air, heated by innumerable 
jets of gas, is got rid of, and the lights themselves act 
as most efficient ventilators. The eyes are likewise 
protected from glare ; and should an escape of gas 



ig2 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

take place, from its levity it passes up through shafts 
to the outside, and does not contaminate the atmos- 
phere below. Under the galleries are common burn- 
ers. There are for day illuminations twelve immense 
plates of glass, ten feet long by four feet wide, placed 
in the ceiling in the spring of the arch, and open di- 
rectly to the outer light, and sixteen smaller ones un- 
der the galleries. 

The whole of the flooring of the hall, in the gal- 
leries, the body of it, and of the platform, consists of 
two layers of boards, with the interstices between them 
filled by a thick bed of mortar? The advantages of 
this, in an acoustical point of view, must be obvious 
to all. Another advantage is, that the applause made 
by the audience in this great hall does not disturb the 
people w r ho may at the same time be holding a meet- 
ing in the other hall below — a very important con- 
sideration. Now, on the occasion of an outburst of 
enthusiasm above, only a slight indication thereof is 
heard in the lesser hall. 

There are eight flights of stairs leading from the 
floors of the main hall, and four from the galleries, 
the aggregate width of which is over fifty feet. 

Of the ventilation of this great hall we shall speak 
under its appropriate head. We would, however, di- 
rect attention to the ingenious contrivance at the back 
of the front gallery, by means of which the foul air is 
carried off. 

Office Entrance and Private Passage to the Halls. 
On the south side of the building is an entrance-way 
about seven feet wide, under the head of offices, where 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. 1 93 

also may be seen the names of the occupants and the 
number of their rooms, which leads to all the depart- 
ments of the Temple. When the public halls are not 
occupied, access can be had to any of the apartments 
through the main entrance, if desired, but at all times 
through this passage way. 

Boston Young Men's Christian Association. 

These beautiful rooms are up one flight of stairs, and 
are admirably adapted for their present uses and oc- 
cupants, and are rented by the Association for sixteen 
hundred dollars per annum, though it is estimated that 
they are worth, at least, twenty-five hundred dollars ; 
but the Temple is controlled by a society who were 
very desirous that a religious association should oc- 
cupy them. 

The committee of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, in a late report, say, " We are now in a build- 
ing well known, easily found, and convenient of ac- 
cess to all the city. We have halls for our lectures in 
the same building, and on very favorable terms. We 
are only one story from the ground. We have a large 
reading-room, a library-room, and three other rooms, 
for prayer meetings, committees, &c. The central sit- 
uation of these rooms will also enable the committee 
to carry out a plan they have matured, for bringing 
the clergymen of our city more to the rooms, and mak- 
ing them better acquainted with each other. The plan 
is, to have the mail matter of all our clergymen brought 
to our rooms at all suitable times of the day, and there 
distributed into boxes, for each one ; so that the clergy 
can get it at that place as conveniently as at the Post 
9 



194 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Office, while, at the same time, they can have the ad- 
vantages of the reading-room, and of seeing each other 
daily. They can also answer their letters there, the 
proper conveniences being always ready. We shall 
thus become a sort of religious exchange — the head- 
quarters of all the clergy, not only of our city, but of 
New England. The clergymen generally are glad to 
come into the arrangement, and we hope for good re- 
sults to our society and to Christian union from it." * 

On entering this suit of rooms, we first come to 
that one occupied as a library. Behind substantial 
railings are shelves filled with books. Next to that 
is a large and handsomely furnished reading-room, 
where, on convenient stands, are arranged various 
newspapers ; and on the walls hang superb engrav- 
ings, mostly of scriptural subjects. On the table lie 
magazines and journals, and in the most comfortable 
of chairs their contents may be studied. 

Beyond the reading-room is a committee-room, and 
a room in which religious services are held weekly. 
The whole of the arrangements, it must be perceived, 
are admirable. This suit, then, consists of a central 
room, forty-eight feet long by thirty feet wide, with 
two side rooms, each about thirty feet by fifteen, and 
two smaller rooms, about fifteen feet by seven, with 
closets and other conveniences. These rooms extend 
entirely across the front of the building, and open 
upon a balcony which commands a very extensive 
view. 

Altogether it would be difficult to find a more con- 
venient and beautiful suit of rooms in our city, for the 
* This scheme has been abandoned. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. 1 95 

purposes of the Association. Back of these, on the 
same story, are eight large and fine rooms, averaging 
about twenty-six feet by sixteen, well lighted, and fur- 
nished with closets and other conveniences. Over the 
rooms of the Christian Association, front, there are 
five rooms of good size, about twenty-five by fifteen 
feet, suitable for artists ; and at the sides, over the stair- 
ways, there are six other similar rooms. 

The organ was built by Messrs. Hook, whose repu- 
tation forms a sufficient guarantee for the excellence 
of the instrument. 

Let us leave now the splendid great hall, and pay a 
visit to 

The Meionaon, 

The main entrance to which is through the north- 
erly passage way, opposite the doors of the Tremont 
House ; this avenue is about seven feet wide. The 
southerly passage way, elsewhere described, serves as 
an outlet from this Lesser Temple. 

Perhaps the reader, who may not have been initiated 
into the mysteries of Greek literature, may thank us 
for a definition of this strange-looking word, Meionaon. 
It is so called from two Greek words ; melon, signify- 
ing less, smaller, and naon, temple — lesser temple. 
It should be pronounced mi-o-na-on. This lesser tem- 
ple is situated back from the street, and directly under 
the great hall. It is seventy-two feet long by fifty-two 
feet wide, and about twenty-five and a half feet high : 
not so elaborately adorned as its neighbor overhead, 
this hall is rented by the church, and is used for the 
Sabbath school and weekly meetings. 



I96 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The Vestry. 

In front of this hall, and on the same level, is a 
large and very commodious vestry, having two en- 
trances, opposite which is the Social Hall, or large 
parlor, used by the church for social purposes, and 
where the leading laymen of the denomination meet 
monthly with invited guests, to greet each other as 
brethren in the Lord, and consult together regarding 
the general interests of the denomination. 

Fire- Room. 

Outside the main wall of the building, and below 
the level of the street, is what is called the fire-room. 
This may be termed the centre of that great circulat- 
ing system by means of which the building is heated. 
Here is a large cylindrical boiler, from which pipes 
proceed and ramify in all directions over the vast 
building ; the water, after it has performed its " mis- 
sion," being brought back again to be re-heated and 
re-sent upon its round. A steam pump is here erected 
to supply the boiler, &c. 

Ventilation. 

Perhaps the most noticeable feature in the Tremont 
Temple is the thorough and perfect manner in which 
it is warmed and ventilated, the trustees being deeply 
impressed with the importance of providing a hall for 
the use of the public, that should, in all respects, be 
comfortable and agreeable, determined to spare no 
pains or expense in having the ventilation of the rooms 
thorough, and the temperature such as the most deli- 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. 1 97 

cate invalid or robust citizen could not find fault with. 
In order to render the building secure against fire, it 
seemed desirable to warm the entire establishment, 
containing no less than thirty rooms, besides the great 
hall, with a single fire. To do this, that mighty agent, 
steam, was called upon ; and well and handsomely does 
it respond. A large boiler, in a remote corner of the 
premises, not under the main building, and which we 
have before referred to, generates steam, which is car- 
ried through the conducting pipes into brick chambers 
of various shapes and sizes, all filled with iron pipes. 
Into these chambers, or reservoirs of heat, cold air is 
introduced through large conductors, whose external 
terminations are near the top of the building, remote 
from the dust and noxious vapors of the street. After 
having received its proper degree of warmth, and been 
rectified in its hygrometric qualities, this air is admit- 
ted, through large trellised openings, to the halls and 
other apartments. 

Into some of the rooms the steam pipes are intro- 
duced directly, and after coiling themselves around the 
room a few times, go on their way into other rooms. 
Thus each room is warmed independently of the oth- 
ers. Indeed, the supply of heat to all the rooms and 
various parts of the building, is placed under the most 
perfect control by means of valves y so that in each 
room the temperature may be graduated with mathe- 
matical accuracy, without at all interfering with the 
temperature of any other room. 

In order to make the ventilation copious and relia- 
ble, there are large air shafts over flues at the corners 
of the hall, terminating at the roof, through which, by 



I9S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

means of steam heat, a constant upward current is 
obtained ; and into these shafts, or flues, all the heated 
and impure air of the room is constantly discharged, 
so that, though the great hall may be packed with 
human beings, yet the constant introduction of fresh, 
warm, pure air, floating over the audience like a gen- 
tle zephyr of the tropics, and the as constant ejection 
of impure air, cause the atmosphere of the rooms to 
have a delightful freshness and elasticity. 

As there is no red-hot iron to burn the air before 
it enters the room, as is generally the case with hot- 
air furnaces, and as the steam pipes afford an admi- 
rable facility for purifying the air, as well as heating 
it, the temperature of the room is not unlike that of a 
green-house, filled with fragrant plants. And what 
are human beings, with lungs of the most delicate 
organization, but plants of a heavenly growth? too 
often, alas, " nipped in the bud" by being obliged to 
breathe an atmosphere deprived of its vitality by 
fire, or poisoned by impurity ! Is it not strange that 
so little attention has been paid to this system of 
combining heat and ventilation for our public build- 
ings ? 

Too much praise cannot be awarded to the parties 
by whom this work in the Tremont Temple was 
planned and executed — Messrs. James J. Walworth 
& Co. It is one more proof of the success which 
seems to have invariably attended their efforts in this 
novel and interesting method of heating, and they have 
certainly succeeded in rendering the Tremont Temple 
the most comfortable, as it is the most unique and 
beautiful, room of the kind, in our city. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE. 1 99 

Ante-rooms, &c. 

Both the large and small halls have attached to them 
ante-rooms, where, on the occasion of concerts, or 
other exhibitions, the vocalists or performers may 
dress or repose. These are fitted up with every requi- 
site that can be imagined. Those for ladies are situ- 
ated on one side of the platform, and for gentlemen 
on the other, and all needful privacy is secured. There 
are many other apartments in the building, well situ- 
ated for artists and dentists. 

T7ie Cupola. 

In making our way thither, we travel o\er the ceil- 
ing of the great hall, dropping our heads as we pass 
beneath roof and rafter, to save our hat and skull, 
and beholding beneath our feet a great net-work of 
gas-piping connected with the burners of the hall un- 
der us. In long rows are square ventilators, which 
discharge their streams of vitiated air on the outside. 

The cupola forms a spacious observatory, glazed all 
round, and from every window is obtained a charm- 
ing view, the whole forming one of the most superb 
panoramas that we ever witnessed. From this ele- 
vated spot may be seen the adjacent villages and 
towns, the harbor and its islands, the city institutions, 
churches, houses, and shipping. In short, the whole 
city and its vicinity lie at our feet. 

Ge7teral Survey. 

We have thus gone through this vast building, but it 
would be impossible to give the entire details of every 



200 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

part in a sketch of this kind ; nor is it necessary. It 
would be an unpardonable omission, however, did we 
omit to state that the skilful architect, under whose 
direction it has arisen, is Mr. William Washburn — 
a gentleman well known for great ability in his diffi- 
cult profession. 

Everything used in the construction of the Temple 
appears to be of the best kind. The chief carpenter 
work and finishing was done by George Nowell & Co. ; 
the painting by Mr. Thaddeus Stone ; and the plaster, 
stucco, and mastic work outside, by Mr. Joseph Kings- 
ley ; mason work by Carlton Parker. 

Statistics of Tremont Temple* 

The following particulars, respecting the origin and 
financial arrangements of this great building, are au- 
thentic, and cannot fail to be of interest. 

The original object of those who have been most 
interested in the Tremont Temple enterprise has been, 
and still is, to keep open a place of public worship on 
the Sabbath, with free seats, for the young persons 
who are constantly coming to the city for employment, 
a large portion of whom are unable to procure seats 
in other churches, and therefore spend their Sabbaths 
by walking about the city and its vicinity, and in that 
way coming in contact with the idle and the vicious, 
are drawn into the paths of vice, and, by degrees, to 
crime, degradation, and ruin. It is mainly to save this 
class that this place is opened, and also for the stran- 
gers who visit it for temporary purposes. 

But the enterprise has become of much greater 
importance, prospectively, by the building of the 



DESIGN OF THE ENTERPRISE. 201 

new Temple, as may be seen by the following state- 
ment : — 

The estimated income from the present stores and 
offices, together with the income of the large halls, 
will not be likely to fall short of ten or twelve thou- 
sand dollars per annum, over the current expenses. 
This, when all the debts are paid, is all to be given 
away for charitable objects, not less than one half of 
which must be expended in the city, for the wants of 
the poor, and the other half may be expended in the 
same way, or for other objects specified in the deed of 
trust by which it is held. It is estimated that the in- 
come will pay all current expenses, and the interest 
on one hundred thousand dollars, to which it is the 
purpose of the trustees to reduce the debt, and leave 
a sinking fund of not less than four thousand dollars 
per annum, which will pay the whole debt in less than 
twenty years ; and this estimate is made, leaving the 
gratuitous use of the parts occupied for religious wor- 
ship out from the calculation, thus, from this time, 
providing a large, central, and inviting place of wor- 
ship, with seats free, all lighted, warmed, and kept 
in repair, and, prospectively (probably within twenty 
years) , providing more than the interest of a two hun- 
dred thousand dollar fund to feed the hungry, to clothe 
the naked, to supply the wants of the destitute, for 
annual distribution, and all this without any person 
giving for such a fund. 

It is, however, provided in the trust deed, that any 
donations that may be made shall be appropriated for 
the extinguishment of the debts, unless otherwise or- 
dered by the donors. 
9 * 



202 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Cost of Building and Furniture. 

The cost of the building, including heating apparatus 
by steam, was not far from one hundred and sixty thou- 
sand dollars, and the furniture, including organs, not 
far from fifteen thousand dollars. 

Management of the Property. 

The property is under the entire and absolute con- 
trol of trustees, elected annually by representatives 
of Baptist churches, who are controlled by the pro- 
visions of the trust deed. 

The Union Temple Church are bound by the pro- 
visions of the deed forever to maintain public worship 
on the Sabbath, with free seats, without using any part 
of this income for that purpose ; and if they do not so 
maintain public worship, a minority of said church are 
authorized to organize for that purpose, and enjoy the 
benefit of this trust in the same manner. 

" We should be sorry to close this brief notice of 
the Tremont Temple without specially alluding to the 
church, which, in fact, formed the nucleus of the en- 
tire fabric." 

"Ina city like Boston, the importance of such an in- 
stitution cannot well be overrated. It not unfrequently 
happens that a stranger in the city, on the Sabbath day, 
finds it no very easy matter to obtain a sitting in one 
of our crowded places of worship ; and we ourselves, 
on more than one occasion, have had to stand, either 
lingering in the aisle until our legs ached, before the 
pew-opener deigned to notice us, or to remain on our 
feet during an entire service. We have heard that a 



THE FRJEE CHUHCH. 203 

visitor to a certain church not a hundred miles from 
the city of Boston, once, on finding that no one heeded 
him as he stood in the aisle, left the building and re- 
turned with a chair, on which he calmly rested him- 
self — a quiet commentary on the want of common 
civility on the part of the officials. Now, all such in- 
conveniences as these may very easily be avoided by 
going to the church in Tremont Temple, where every 
seat is free to whoever may choose to take it." 

" A free church ! There is something noble and beau- 
tiful in the very sound ! Free as air — free as ocean 
waves — free as the everlasting gospel which is preached 
within its walls ! Free to all ! As none were exempted 
in the great invitation of the Saviour, so to this free 
church all are invited and are welcome. No grim sex- 
ton stands in the aisle, to survey you from head to foot 
as you stand waiting his pleasure, and unless you be 
genteel, will not let you come " between the wind and 
his nobility," or usher you into a pew. No purse-proud 
occupant of a seat that he only enjoys, though there be 
room and to spare for half a dozen more, looks com- 
placently at you as he lolls on his cushions ; but instead 
of this, you walk quietly to any unoccupied place, and 
take it as your right. This is as it should be ; and 
well may the strangers in Boston bless the benevolence 
of those who fitted up this beautiful place for their ac- 
commodation." * 

Mr. G.'s diary and private correspondence give us 

* The above description is in part taken from an article by 
George W. Bungay, first published in the " Waverley Magazine 
and Literary Messenger." 



204 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

an insight to the burdens imposed upon him, and the 
loss he sustained in the death of Deacon Shipley. 

Impressed by the favoring providences which helped 
him in carrying forward his work, tried by the course 
pursued by the architect, disappointed if not dejected 
by the manner in which the bills exceeded the bids, he 
finds relief and comfort alone at the throne of grace. 

In 1853 the Temple was finished and dedicated, and 
the following paper was written in July of the same 
year, and left as an evidence of his desires and wishes 
regarding the use to be made of it : — 

" I, Timothy Gilbert, having been the principal in- 
strument that the Lord has used in purchasing, refit- 
ting, and again in rebuilding, the Tremont Temple, 
do hereby leave upon record my desires and wishes 
concerning the same, and what I believe to be the will 
of God, who has so signally blessed and favored the 
enterprise from its commencement. And I hereby 
wish it to be remembered that this is not the work of 
Timothy Gilbert, he being only the instrument in the 
hands of God, used to carry forward His own benevo- 
lent designs, and that the Tremont Street Church have 
no cause to exult, but rather to inquire, ' Lord, what 
wilt thou have us to do ? ' for never was there a church 
placed under greater responsibilities than devolve upon 
this people, who are called upon, by their position 
and the circumstances which environ them, to see 
to it that the whole enterprise shall be carried on for 
the advancement of the cause of truth and morality, 
and not for the pecuniary benefit or honor of any 
individual or individuals ; and I hereby leave this as 
my solemn conviction, that whenever the time shall 



MR. GILBERT'S DESIRE. 205 

come when no one will carry on this enterprise for 
the love they bear to the cause of Christ and without 
pecuniary reward, then the glory of Tremont Tem- 
ple will have departed. Then let the church clothe 
themselves with sackcloth, and fast and pray until the 
Lord will raise up and qualify one or more to do this 
work, and to say, ' Lord, here am I ; take me, and use 
me for that service ; ' otherwise darkness will overshadow 
the enterprise from that time forward. Let the church, 
having the benefit of this trust, guard against even in- 
dulging for a moment the desire or wish to use any 
part of the income for the ordinary support of a pas- 
tor, lest that wish or desire should be seen, by Him who 
looks on the heart, to grow out of the selfish desire to 
shirk the burdens of the Lord's house, and thus make 
them guilty of wishing to offer to the Lord ' that which 
costs them nothing.' Let the church adhere to the 
conditions of the charter or deed ; and whenever a 
doubt arises as to its meaning and intent, let them 
construe it in favor of the poor who are to be benefit- 
ed by the income, and not to relieve themselves from 
the slightest responsibility. 

" Let them also conscientiously consider this in all the 
uses they may make of the income, in all alterations and 
repairs, in letting or refusing to let, and act conform- 
ably to the principle that they are stewards of the 
Lord's family, and must give an account to Him who 
put them into the stewardship. Let every one who 
shall undertake to steady the ark or conduct the enter- 
prise, by their own skill, or strength, or wisdom, with- 
out consulting the Lord, be as Uzzah, if it should be 
myself. Let every one who shall dare to put their 



206 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

hands to it, remember that it is a holy enterprise, be- 
gun and carried on by a holy God ; that its past suc- 
cess is all of Him, and if ultimately successful, all the 
glory will legitimately belong to Him, and to no earthly 
instrument whatever. And I hereby leave it to be 
remembered and acted upon by all who may speak of 
me, or mention my name in connection with it, when 
I am dead, that the honor of my Lord and Saviour 
will be tarnished, and his frown called down upon 
every attempt to give the glory to me or to any other 
human being. After my decease, let what I have writ- 
ten on this, the ioth day of July, 1853, be faithfully 
considered, and may the Lord add his blessing." 



207 



CHAPTER XL 

THE TREMONT TEMPLE ENTERPRISE IMPERILLED. 

THE PROPERTY OFFERED FOR SALE. THE ORGAN- 
IZATION OF THE EVANGELICAL BAPTIST BENEVO- 
LENT AND MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE SKY CLEAR- 
ING. — MR. GILBERT'S HOPES BRIGHTENING. — LET- 
TER OF REV. D. C. EDDY, D. D. 

The years 1854 and 1855 are thick with shadows. 
In the political world there were Kansas excitements, 
the trial of Burns, his rendition to slavery in the pres- 
ence of a vast concourse of people, the state militia 
looking on, and the deacon " agonizing over the tri- 
umphs of slavery." 

In the church all was dark. The Temple, capable of 
accommodating a vast congregation, was never full ; the 
prayer meetings were thinly attended ; the brethren, 
feeling to repine at the loss sustained by the resignation 
of Dr. Colver, and not rallying as one man about the 
new pastor, failed to sympathize with him in his views, 
aims, or plans ; while, financially, the sky was grow- 
ing dark rather than bright, and the burdens Mr. Gil- 
bert bore threatened to ingulf him in ruin. 

The year 1855 furnished the turning point in the 
history of the Temple. The crmrch were discouraged. 
They who had given their prayers and pecuniary aid, 
to a limited extent, tired of the burden, and desiring 



20S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

to avail themselves of the money that would accrue to 
them from the sale of the property, opposed Mr. Gil- 
bert's plans and thwarted his purposes. On Wednes- 
day, May 30, 1855, Rev. T. C.Jameson tendered his 
resignation, and Deacon Gilbert made the attempt to 
dissolve his connection with a church in which, for 
many years, he had borne a very prominent part. 

The Sabbaths that followed must have been Sabbaths 
of peculiar experiences. He goes to Merrimack Street, 
to Rowe Street, to Somerset Street, to Brookline, and, 
at last, September 2, 1855, becomes a member of the 
First Baptist Church, where he remained until 1859, 
when, difficulties having been removed, he saw his 
way clear to resume his work in the field of his early 
love and choice. 

His removal from the Tremont Street Church sev- 
ered one of the strong ties that bound him to the en- 
terprise. His pecuniary liabilities made it imperative 
that something be done for his relief. The Temple 
was offered for sale first to his own denomination, it 
being understood, in case of their failure to purchase 
it, that the Congregationalists stood ready to take the 
property. 

At this stage of affairs one of the trustees refused to 
convey the property to the denomination, because of 
his desire to secure a fund for the church out of the 
estate. Concerning this Mr. Gilbert writes, that " how- 
ever desirable this may be for the church, he is un- 
willing that it shall interfere with the original design, 
which has been to secure the property for the cause of 
evangelical religion and morality, and for the benefit 
of the poor in the city of Boston." 



THE TEMPLE FOR SALE. 2CX) 

At this time the crisis was reached. The church 
opposed the sale of the Temple, because of their vested 
rights. The deacon, having concluded to sell the prop- 
erty, hoped to find a purchaser in the Baptist denom- 
ination. In case of failure in that quarter, he had 
entered into negotiations with the Orthodox Congre- 
gationalists. The church became alarmed, and sent 
for Dr. Colver. The excitement seemed to rouse the 
denomination. A glance at the figures shows that the 
church had received more than an adequate return for 
the amount invested, and that it was better for them to 
suffer than to have the property pass beyond the con- 
trol of evangelical Christians. 

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity." It was 
well that the property should be taken out of the hands 
of the church, and placed in the care of a board of 
trustees chosen by ballot and representing the different 
churches in Boston and vicinity. 

The Tremont Temple was conceived as a missionary 
enterprise, designed to furnish the gospel to the spirit- 
ually destitute in the city, and to create a fund to aid 
in giving the gospel to the spiritually destitute else- 
where. 

Fears were justly entertained that this interest would 
be swallowed up by the Roman Catholic church. The 
future of Boston seemed to be involved in the action 
of the denomination. The church were unequal to 
the task. They were poor. It is probably true that 
no matter how loud individuals may be in their pro- 
fessions of regard for the work to be done in such a 
place, yet very few of what are called leading men 
and their families will join the church. Now and then 



2IO MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

a powerful impression of duty or strong personal con- 
siderations will bring such help, but not often. 

" The heterogeneous character of the congregation ; 
the uncertainty as to where one will sit, or whether he 
will sit with his family, or whether, indeed, he will 
not have to stand up ; the lack of the numberless asso- 
ciations which make the sanctuary a religious home — 
dearest and sweetest home sometimes in all the world ; 
the scarcity of families ; and the lack of society and 
friendly communion, — all these, whether properly or 
not, tend to keep back the rich." 

This is the charge. The conduct of Christian men 
should disprove it if it be not already disproved. If 
ordinary family churches need judicious, sagacious, be- 
nevolent, devoted, and directing spirits, who, by com- 
mon consent, are denominated " leading men," whom 
the people love to follow, how much more does this 
church need them ! No one can look at the stran- 
gers gathered from all lands at each service, without 
seeing the necessity of representative men forming a 
stated part of the congregations. No one can look 
upon the hundreds of young men and women who 
come as strangers, and need the hand of welcome to 
be extended to them by the church of God on the 
threshold of their new life, without being impressed 
by the want of men of character and influence to greet 
and guide them. Such a threshold the " Stranger's 
Sabbath Home " ought to become. Nowhere else does 
influence tell to such advantage. It is impossible to 
make the poor herd together. In God's house the rich 
and poor should meet together. Young men wish 
to meet their employers outside of their places of busi- 



DUTY OF THE RICH TO THE POOR. 211 

ness. If merchants care for the commercial future of 
the city in which they live, they cannot afford to over- 
look Tremont Temple, or keep aloof from it, for, by so 
doing, they separate themselves from the young men 
who look up to them for example and guidance. If 
Christian men care for the future character of their 
denomination, they cannot afford to neglect such instru- 
mentalities of usefulness. They owe it to God, to the 
country, to the young men that are being influenced by 
them, and to him who ministers to the people in holy 
things, to give their countenance to, and grace with their 
presence, such places of popular resort. Every pub- 
lic speaker understands the influence exerted by a man 
of mark and character forming a part of the congrega- 
tion. It is said that the entrance of Daniel Webster into 
a theatre changed the character of the play. The actors 
forgot the pit and thought of the statesman instead. 

Perhaps it ought not to be so, but it is so. The 
influence of the pew is felt in the pulpit as much as 
the influence of the pulpit is felt in the pew. Notwith- 
standing this, from the causes indicated, the number of 
influential and leading men will never be large in such 
a place, and those that come will have enough to do 
without being forced to guide a miscellaneous church 
made up of youths, of the poor and of the middling 
classes, who are grand as helpers in winning souls, 
but who are not familiar with the management of large 
parochial trusts. Better, by far, is it to have the prop- 
erty held by trustees connected with other churches, 
who will sympathize with the work, take an interest 
in the congregation, as well as in the property, and 



212 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

who will act for the good of the denomination and the 
glory of God, and leave the church to reap for Christ. 
This all looks plain now, but it seemed uncertain ground 
in 1855. Experience has proven that such a church 
ought to have just as little as possible to do with legis- 
lating, with planning, with management. The best 
government is that which governs least. Surely, no 
one can gaze upon the assembled thousands in the con- 
gregations on the Sabbath, or upon the hundreds gath- 
ered in the Sabbath schools and Bible classes, without 
feeling that a work is before the church worthy of an 
angel's powers. 

Entertaining these views, we tread with delight the 
path which seemed so full of thorns, because from 
every stem there has come forth a full-blown rose. 

A meeting of the prominent members of the Bap- 
tist denomination in this city and vicinity was called, 
and a public meeting was held in the Meionaon, March 

i ? 1855- 

This meeting deemed it desirable to secure the estate 
to the denomination, and appointed a committee for 
this purpose. Other meetings were held, but, for 
various reasons, without being able to accomplish the 
end desired. As there appeared to be no immediate 
prospect of relief, the property was afterwards adver- 
tised to be sold by public auction, on the 20th of June 
following ; but the sale was postponed to carry out an 
arrangement, which was being made, to place the prop- 
erty, temporaily, in the hands of thirty-seven individ- 
uals, until subscriptions could be obtained for its pur- 
chase, with a view of conveying it to a society, to be 



BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 213 

called the Evangelical Baptist Benevolent and Mis- 
sionary Society. 

In accordance with this arrangement, it was conveyed 
by deed, dated June 28, 1855, to Thomas Richardson, 
Frederick Gould, J. W. Converse, G. W. Chipman, and 
J. W. Merrill, as trustees, and the sum of thirty-six 
thousand seven hundred and eleven dollars and three 
cents over and above its outstanding liabilities was paid 
therefor. 

An act of incorporation was secured in 1857 for an 
association known as the Evangelical Baptist Benevo- 
lent and Missionary Society, to be located in the city of 
Boston, for the purpose of securing the constant main- 
tenance in said Boston of evangelical preaching for the 
young and the destitute, with free seats ; for the em- 
ployment of colporteur and missionary laborers in Bos- 
ton and elsewhere ; for the purpose of providing suit- 
able central apartments to other and kindred benevolent 
and missionary societies ; and for the general purpose 
of ministering to the spiritual wants of the needy and 
destitute, with the right of holding real and personal 
estate to the amount of three hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, which property, and the net income 
thereof after the same has been paid for, shall be ap- 
propriated exclusively for the purposes in this act 
specified, and the same shall be exempted from taxa- 
tion. 

The society was organized May 11, 1858, and on 
the 14th of June the constitution was adopted, and 
at a subsequent meeting the following officers were 
elected : — 



214 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

President. 
James M. Converse. 

Secretary. 
Joseph Story. 

Treasurer. 
J.Warren Merrill. 

Directors. 

Thomas Richardson, Boston. 

George W. Chipman, 

Timothy Gilbert, 

Charles D. Gould, 

Asa Wilbur, 

George S. Dexter, 

Charles S. Kendall, 

Jesse Tirrell, 

J. W. Converse, yamaica Plain. 

George W. Little, Ckarlestown. 

Frederick Gould, Cambridge. 

William H. Jameson, Brookline. 

William A. Bowdlear, Roxbury. 

Auditors. 

Joshua Loring, Chelsea. 
Joshua Lincoln, Roxbury. 

A lease was executed December 6, 1858, "granting 
the Tremont Street Baptist Church and Society the 
use of the great hall, with the organ and furniture 
therein, during the daytime on Sundays, as a place of 



CONDITIONS OF THE LEASE. 215 

public worship ; and also basement rooms for vestry 
and Sabbath school ; the church agreeing to main- 
tain public worship on the Sabbath, with free seats, 
and to support a good and efficient pastor, who shall 
be considered creditable to the denomination, and such 
as shall be so considered by the Baptist churches in the 
city of Boston and the adjoining cities and towns of 
Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Cambridge, Charles- 
town, and Chelsea ; and that the church shall hold 
and maintain the doctrines of the evangelical Baptist 
churches in said cities and towns. Either of the Bap- 
tist churches in said cities and towns may at any time 
call a council, to be composed of two members from 
such churches — not less than a majority of the whole 
number — as may choose to send delegates, to inquire 
whether the church has broken any of these covenants ; 
and if the council so chosen shall decide that the church 
has failed to comply with any of the covenants, then 
this lease shall cease. In case of a sale of the estate, 
this # lease is null and void ; and the amount realized 
from the sale, after paying the cost of the same to this 
corporation, with interest, charges, and expenses, shall 
be paid over to said church, which amount shall be 
held in trust by the deacons of said church, for the 
purpose of building a new place of worship, or to be 
appropriated to some other religious or charitable ob- 
ject by said church." 

The obligations of the denomination to those breth- 
ren who stepped forward and by their individual cred- 
it, as well as by their contributions, saved the enterprise 
from irretrievable ruin, cannot be over-estimated. At 
a time when another denomination stood ready, money 



2l6 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

in hand. I lake it the cen- 

tre of influence and the source of power, then 
were found mc had been blessed of 

prop. :. without del; o _- 1 their :; 

and gave their influence to serve a denomination 

.-'.".rnished them with a spiritual home. The 

;mi. vh;se appeals fir am m Bistm and vicinity re- 
floating debt was paid, and without which the property 

could not have been secured. 

From i Sf S to 1S62 the church acted independently 
cf the B:: m ; ; t-ieit:m :f the p astir. In the 
mean time stories prejudicial to the standing and char- 

i if the minister were circulated. After his resig- 
: a it was felt to re desirable mat an understanding 

between the church and the Board of Directors should 
aereil into. Hence in 1062 a meeting was caileib 

and a committee, of which Raw. T. X. Murdoch D. D., 

: E' mneheal Baptist Benevolent and Missio: 

Tim recommendation was accented by both parties. 
and is now the rule. 

Tim-. : step, God led the church and 

Board to adopt a has secured harmony 

and erity such as were never before 

witnessed. At a glance, all discover me p 



DEACON GILBERT'S FIDELITY. 21 7 

of a magnificent success. Money invested in this cor- 
poration pays great dividends for the cause of Christ. 
It aids in keeping open a large and attractive place in 
the heart of Boston, where the gospel is preached to an 
immense multitude, many of whom would not find a 
seat in any other place of worship, while it must ulti- 
mately provide a fund of several thousand dollars an- 
nually for missionary purposes. 

Deacon Gilbert, as a member of the Board of Direct- 
ors, watched over the interests of the Temple, with 
unfaltering zeal, to the close of life. 

When others hesitated he held on in his course. To 
him, more than to any other man, we owe it that the 
Temple was not sold in the dark days succeeding i860. 
Nor did he labor for himself, but to strengthen evan- 
gelical religion, and through it reach and move the 
world. When the Temple was called " a sponge, which 
absorbs easier than it exudes ; " when a city pastor 
spoke of it as an element of denominational weakness ; 
when the Board grew weary — though Mr. G. had been 
impoverished, like David faint yet pursuing and relying 
upon that Being whose interpositions had saved it in 
the past, he would exclaim, at the close of a tiresome 
debate, " Brethren, you may vote as you choose ; the 
Temple will not be sold." 

His heart was cheered by letters from various quar- 
ters, of which this, from the hand of Rev. D. C. Eddy, 
D. D., is a fair specimen : — 

" I recognize the importance of the field of useful- 
ness of the Temple. The right man could do more 
good there than anywhere upon the continent. It is a 
useful as well as a glorious place to labor. I believe 
10 



2lS MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

a minister could live more for God, in one year at the 
Temple, than in a regular church edifice in ten." 

The congregations were a source of perpetual en- 
joyment to him. The vast multitudes of young men 
were the subjects of his constant thought. Hundreds 
were spoken to by him who never forgot his words of 
cordial welcome. He did not rejoice in the prosperity 
of the Temple in any spirit of vain-glorying. He be- 
lieved that if the Temple were emptied and its congre- 
gations were scattered, if the inspiring sights that have 
ever been witnessed when the gospel in its simplicity 
and with religious fervor has been proclaimed, should 
become a tale of by-gone days, the Baptist congrega- 
tions in the city would see no sensible difference in 
their own. The congregation at the Temple is not 
drawn from others. Yet admit that other congrega- 
tions do feel a slight draft upon them, Mr. Gilbert felt 
that the fact that the largest Protestant audience in 
America statedly listened to the truth as he understood 
it, was a matter for denominational congratulation and 
a cause for exultation, rather than an occasion for de- 
nunciation and jealous opposition. 



219 



CHAPTER XII. 

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 

Deacon Gilbert was a man to be remembered. He 
wore the appearance of a gentleman of the olden time. 
His bald forehead, white hair, black, glittering eyes, 
white neck-tie, and black dress gave him a clerical 
appearance, and made him a marked feature in any 
public assembly. He recognized his position, and 
understood the importance of allowing his influence 
to be felt. He consecrated his time, his talents, and 
his property to the service of Christ. He did not, like 
so many of our leading business men, act as though 
his time was too precious or his position too great to 
make it incumbent upon him to attend the social gath- 
erings of the church, and exert his influence upon the 
young. He was a power in the church, because he 
lived in the church, and identified himself with its ev- 
ery interest. His house, his table, and his business were 
made subservient to the weal of the cause of Christ. 
Hence ministers and evangelists were sure of a wel- 
come at his fireside. The young and inexperienced 
were sure of meeting sympathy, and of obtaining good 
counsel, in his counting-room. 

It was Friday evening, March 6, 1863, when the 
writer came, a stranger, to No. 8 Beach Street. He 
had been invited to supply the desk on the coming 



2 20 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Sabbath, and feeling a desire to ascertain the condition 
of the church, by attending the prayer meeting, he had 
come on Friday. 

Mr. Gilbert's greeting was cordial, his look was kind, 
but searching. The stranger had heard through pre- 
vious pastors much of his idiosyncrasies of character, 
and was prepared to see in the lithe and slightly bent 
form of the builder of Tremont Temple a man distin- 
guished for reserved power, and for a look that is ac- 
customed to have its way. At once the measure was 
taken. It was not to Mr. Gilbert perfectly satisfac- 
tory. He was in doubt. He intimated that the church 
needed a pastor. As he was not in the presence of a 
candidate, the topic was changed. At tea the family 
evidenced that a strange face was not a strange sight. 
The habits of the deacon were seen to be peculiar. 
After tea the Bible was brought out. He read and 
prayed. That prayer revealed his heart. He longed 
for the prosperity of Zion, and asked God for a bless- 
ing to attend the coming of the preacher. We went 
to the house of prayer in company. The diary says, 
" Had a very good meeting — good spirit." Saturday 
was passed by the new comer among his friends. In the 
afternoon it began snowing, and by Sabbath morning 
every railroad was blocked, cars were taken off, and 
sleighs were brought into requisition. The sight af- 
fected and depressed the heart of the deacon. The 
minister smiled, and claimed that he liked a stormy 
day, as it revealed the grit and character of the sol- 
diers of the cross. The Temple was nearly empty. 
None but the bravest were there. The paths were 
not broken. Those who did come literally pressed 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 221 

through difficulties to the house of God. They formed 
a part of that unconquered company who had with- 
stood the trials, and overcome the difficulties, that at 
times threatened to undermine the foundations of their 
permanence and prosperity. The services did the 
church good. Their faces showed it. The prayer 
meeting in the evening, which the diary pronounced 
u exceedingly interesting," evidenced it. The letters 
that followed, inviting the preacher to become pastor, 
all referred back to that stormy day without, and to 
that glorious day within, the Tremont Temple. 

At this time the question of sale was still agitating 
the minds of the denomination. A few facts will throw 
light upon the condition of affairs. The union that was 
a felt necessity on the part of all friends did not exist 
between the church and the Board. The church was 
under a cloud. They were poor, but they respected 
themselves. While they were willing to ask the co- 
operation of the Board, they were not willing to con- 
sent to the dictation of the Board. They claimed the 
right of choosing their pastor, and were only willing to 
refer his credentials to the Board. The church needed 
character. It needed strong men who were known and 
respected abroad, as well as men revered and respected 
at home. The individual who was repeatedly invited 
to become their pastor, claimed that laymen are called, 
as well as ministers, to walk the paths of trial and toil. 
In other words, it was felt that this church, while it 
throws open its doors to the poor and to the stranger, 
should contain within its membership and personal 
friends ability of brains and of pocket sufficient to 
sustain and manage the enterprise ; that the principle 
embodied in the words of Christ, " Ye are the salt of 



22 2 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

the earth," ought not to be ignored ; that there is a 
humanity in Christianity as well as a Christianity *in 
humanity : that brain produces brain ; that financial 
strength begets financial strength, just as spiritual 
power repeats itself in spiritual power. Feeling is 
well ; but without reason it becomes a mountain tor- 
rent, turbulent and noisy. Talent is well ; but unless 
it be consecrated to Christ, it will shed a brilliant light 
abroad, while it remains quite too cold at home. 
Money is well ; but money cannot buy God's blessing, 
nor secure the salvation of a single soul. There must 
be a union of piety, of talent, and of financial strength. 
Poverty may figure well in the flowing numbers of the 
poet, but it amounts to but little in the cash accounts 
of the financier. It is not regarded as a blessing to be 
coveted, nor as a fact to be despised. The Tremont 
Temple could not be sustained as a poor-house, nor 
the pastor as a public pauper. This view of the con- 
dition of affairs met with a hearty response in the 
minds and hearts of some of the leading friends of 
the enterprise. Attempts were made to secure the 
services of the pastor alone. It was in vain. As a 
result, the Union and Tremont Street Baptist Churches 
came together, and formed a new organization, called 
the Union Temple Baptist Church. The dead past was 
buried. A bright future dawned upon the enterprise. 
Fresh life was infused into the Sabbath school, into the 
prayer meeting, and the congregation felt the influence. 
Days of fasting and prayer were held. The church 
looked to God for a blessing, and began at once to 
labor for the salvation of souls. At the outset it was 
difficult for Deacon Gilbert to get used to the new 
order of things. The thoughts of the church were 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 223 

turned intQ new channels. The church meeting, which 
had been a kind of a debating society, was done away 
with. 

The prudential committee attended to matters of 
discipline, and introduced to the church those who 
were deemed worthy to be received. The executive 
committee took charge of the finances, and at once 
devised a system of raising money by subscription, 
which relieved the treasury, and provided for the 
wants of the society. To say that Deacon Gilbert at 
once heartily entered into the spirit of the new regime 
would be untrue. At first he felt called upon to take 
the direction of affairs into his own hands, as had been 
his custom. The pastor objected. There were three in- 
stances. Mr. G. minuted them in his diary. One Mon- 
day morning he proposed to talk the matter over. The 
pastor went with the deacon to his parlor. They spoke 
their minds. The new system was explained. From 
that time to the hour of the deacon's release, he was the 
kindest, the most considerate, of brothers. Henceforth 
there was no collision. The pastor respected and loved 
his deacon. The deacon respected and loved his pastor. 
They enjoyed each other's society in the house of God 
and elsewhere, and the pastor feels that he can adopt 
the language of the efficient secretary of the society, 
Solomon Parsons, Esq., who in a note says, "I bless 
God in permitting me in so humble a manner the honor 
of sharing the labors of the founder or originator of 
this great enterprise, and that I was able in some 
slight degree, after entering upon the duties of my 
office, to appreciate his labors and undertakings, and 
to aid him in his wishes and desires for the continu- 



224 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

ance and perpetuation of this noble work to those who 
shall come after him." 

The Christian character of Deacon Gilbert rested 
upon immovable foundations, and shines forth in these 
public records. To learn his sacrifices, his toils, and 
devotion to the cause of Christ, the eye must become 
familiar with his private memoranda, and the ear with 
the unrecorded acts of a generous life. There is a vast 
pile of manuscript unreached. Here are letters to 
Charles Sumner, John P. Hale, and John Quincy 
Adams, to Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, 
showing that he felt the responsibilities of an American 
citizen and a Christian philanthropist. Again, topics 
such as " Consecration," " Devotion," " Humility," 
are treated at considerable length. 

Here is another paper in which he enters into an 
argument to prove that the Temple was as strictly 
dedicated to the worship of Almighty God, notwith- 
standing it was let for secular purposes, as was any 
pewed church. This paper is without a date, but it 
is not difficult to understand why it was drawn up. 
Some one has been decrying the enterprise, because 
the large hall of the Temple is rented to, and used by 
those w r ho obtain it, for secular purposes. The dea- 
con, as is his wont, writes out his argument, and 
thenceforth wields it with force. 

Another paper explains why it would be improper 
to place the deed of the Temple in the hands of the 
church. (It was the original design to do this when 
the debts were paid.) First, because the title from a 
church would not be valid, as a church is not recog- 
nized as a legal body ; second, if a church were legal, 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 225 

moneyed institutions would not loan them money, as 
it would be injurious to their reputation to dispossess 
a church of a house in order to get their dues. 

We have already seen that Mr. G. gave employment 
to men without distinction of color. The boy Thomas, 
to whom reference was made in the slave hunter's 
letter, is still in the city ; and James Jones, who came to 
the North in the hold of a vessel, where he was packed 
away, having reached Boston, and being friendless and 
nearly famished, was brought to Timothy Gilbert, and 
remained in the employ of his friend until within a 
year of the death of the latter, and found pleasure in 
attending him night after night in his last sickness. 
These instances simply illustrate a life of rare devo- 
tion in ameliorating the woes of the friendless and the 
poor. The history of his friendship and friendly acts 
to the colored people is written in the book of God's 
remembrance, for it was the rule of his life not to let 
the right hand know what the left hand doeth. For 
forty years he occupied that elevated position to which 
God in his providence led the nation, where Abraham 
Lincoln died, — a position in the light of which the 
Declaration of Independence lost its glittering general- 
ities, — where patriotism, love to God, and love to men 
made black men so white he could not see their black- 
ness, and where narrowness and treason made white 
men so black he could not see their whiteness, — a 
position in which he recognized the manhood of 
American citizenship. 

The following letter, the last ever written by his 
hand for the press, was printed in the "Watchman 
and Reflector" the week before he departed for the 
10* 



226 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

better land. It is the utterance of the friend of the 
slave, as he stood in the light of the eternal world. 

Constitutional Rights. 

The Declaration of Independence, which has always 
been recognized as the foundation of our constitutional 
government, asserts that all men are created free and 
equal, and are by their Creator entitled to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. 

The Constitution, Article I. Section 2, provides that 
representatives shall be apportioned among the several 
states according to the whole number of free persons, 
and three fifths of all other persons (Indians not taxed 
being the only exceptions). 

If there are no slaves, then of course there are none 
to which the three-fifths rule can apply, but all are free 
persons. The only classes referred to in the Constitu- 
tion are " free " and " all others ; " no reference is 
made to color. The free people are the only people 
under the Constitution recognized as the people to 
form a government. The language of the Preamble 
is as follows : 

"We, the people of the United States, in order to 
form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America." 

With the foregoing constitutional provisions, unless 
something can be proved to the contrary, can any part 
of the people of any state — and especially the truly 



MR. GILBERT ON RECONSTRUCTION. 227 

loyal part — be excluded from participating in the gov- 
ernment, under the Constitution, without violating its 
provisions ? 

By an act of Congress under the census of i860, the 
number of representatives is fixed at 233, viz. — from 
the free states 149, and from the slave states 84 — 
based upon a representative population of 29,806,801, 
three fifths only of the slave population being counted, 
which gives the ratio for each representative 126,845. 
But, counting the whole population, 31,209,742, as 
free, and dividing it by 233, the number of representa- 
tives fixed by the act of Congress, will give the ratio to 
each representative 133,947? which will give the former 
free states only 141, and the former slave states 92 
representatives, and the same number of electors for 
president. By this it will be seen that the free states 
will lose eight, and the slave states gain eight repre- 
sentatives, making a change of sixteen votes in favor 
of the slave states, if the same people as before the 
rebellion are to be the sole electors, and to have the 
supreme power. 

If the late slave population is excluded from the 
ballot in these states, and the freed people are placed 
at the mercy of their rebel masters whom they have 
helped us to subdue, does not every feeling of our 
heart cry Out, in view of the indignities and barbarities 
they must suffer from those who have starved, tortured, 
and murdered our men while in their prisons and else- 
where ? 

The injustice, inequality, and unconstitutionality of 
this are further apparent from the fact that twenty-nine 
of these ninety-two representative and electoral votes 



2 2S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

(if this injustice is permitted) will be derived from 
counting said excluded class ; otherwise they would 
be entitled to only sixty-three votes. This injustice 
and inequality are still further seen by comparing the 
population and the representative and electoral votes. 
The free-state population is two and twenty-eight one 
hundredths to one in slave states, excluding the slave 
population ; but the representative and electoral votes 
will be only one and fifty-three one hundredths to one 
in slave states. 

Thus, while we have been flattering ourselves that 
the rebels are conquered, does it not appear to be the 
reverse, if we surrender to them, not only all the 
political power they ever had, but reward them with 
this increase of power, without the least correspond- 
ing gain on our part? Will it not appear that they 
are the conquerors, and we the conquered ? — they 
only losing, what to them was worse than useless, the 
right to hold property in slaves, which has always 
been an incubus upon the growth and prosperity of 
that section of the country, and gaining this increase 
of political power. If they secure from the free states 
only twenty-five additional votes, it would give them a 
majority in the House of Representatives ; and is it 
unreasonable to suppose that number may be secured, 
and that an attempt may be made to repudiate some 
part or all of the debt created in bringing them into 
subjection ? 

How can we avoid these threatened evils, and the 
danger of another war, but by securing to all the 
people their constitutional right — the ballot? 

A government like ours, even if we ignore the ques- 



MR. GILBERT ON RECONSTRUCTION. 229 

tion of justice, formed to establish justice, and secure 
liberty, in order to be strong must be just to all its 
loyal subjects, securing to all equal rights and privi- 
leges. This is included in securing to each state a 
republican form of government. It was because slavery 
was unjust and oppressive that it was an element of 
weakness. It was the injustice of their claims, more 
than the physical or financial strength of the parties 
in the late civil war, that decided in favor of the vic- 
torious party. 

If the question of equal rights to the freedman shall 
be the cause of another civil war in this country, who 
can doubt but that the God-fearing, sin-hating, and 
liberty-loving portion of our people, both North and 
South, will, by their prayers and efforts, give aid and 
comfort to those who are thus deprived of their just 
rights ? 

God, who is just, will defend the right, as in our 
late struggle ; and woe to him that is found resisting 
his will. 

T. G. 

Boston, June, 1865. 

Again he takes the pen, and gives utterance to his 
views concerning the right of suffrage for the black 
man, and publishes them in the "Christian Era" : — 

I have been exceedingly gratified and hopeful for 
the future of our country in the almost universal utter- 
ances I have seen in the press, and heard from the 
platform, in favor of the freedmen being admitted to 
all the rights of citizenship. Nothing short of this, I 
think, will secure to our government the favor of God, 



23O MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

and through his favor and blessing the glorious future 
I see in store for this nation. 

But in the restoration of the seceded states we are 
in danger of compromising with injustice and wrong. 
In the proclamation just issued by our president I 
think there is cause for alarm. He empowers William 
W. Holden, the newly-appointed provisional governor 
of North Carolina, as soon as it shall seem proper to 
call a convention of the loyal people of that state, to 
reorganize a state government, with an altered or 
amended constitution, in order that said state may be 
readmitted into the Union. He then prescribes that 
an elector, in order to be entitled to vote in calling 
said convention, must have the qualifications prescribed 
by the constitution and laws of that state previous to 
the passage of the (so called) ordinance of secession. 
This of course excludes all the freedmen. It further 
directs or provides that said convention so called, 
or the legislature that may thereafter assemble, shall, 
or may, prescribe the qualification of electors ; which 
would be right if all the loyal people were represented 
in said convention ; but they are not. This will leave 
the destiny and control of the state, for all future time, 
in the hands of the same class who have heretofore 
controlled its political status ; only excluding those 
who are proved to have been in open rebellion, and 
such as refuse to take the prescribed oath of allegiance ; 
entirely excluding the freedmen, who have been the 
only class in the seceded states during the rebellion 
that have been truly loyal. Such injustice cannot fail 
to provoke a just God, and call down his chastisements 
on the nation. 



SUFFRAGE FOR FREEDMEN. 23 1 

Under such circumstances, and with such a govern- 
ment so constituted, freedom can be but little more 
than a name. If the seceded states are to be restored, 
without any other guarantee for the security of the 
rights of the freedmen, then have the immense blood 
and treasure of the nation been expended without any 
adequate good being accomplished. But I cannot 
believe that God, who has been directing in all this 
terrible war, and, as I believe, has come down to 
deliver these oppressed ones, will permit the sword 
to be sheathed, and this nation restored to a lasting 
peace, until the freedmen are fully restored to all the 
rights of citizenship, and our nation shall stand forth 
with the motto taken from Holy Writ, and contained 
in our Declaration of Independence, inscribed upon 
all our laws and enactments, " God hath made of one 
blood all the nations of the earth." 

I think this whole matter should be left open until 
the assembling of Congress at its next session, and 
that then they should be petitioned to pass uniform 
laws on the subject of naturalization for all the states, 
defining by a uniform rule who shall be entitled to 
vote, making no distinction on account of color. Peti- 
tions to this effect should be prepared and signed by 
every individual throughout the entire North, and also 
in the Southern States, so far as the inhabitants shall 
desire to do so, and forwarded to Congress at the 
opening of the session. 

There is no provision in the Constitution that au- 
thorizes any distinction on account of color ; and as the 
Constitution, Article IV. Section 4, makes it the duty 
of the United States to guarantee to every state a 



232 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

republican form of government, and to protect them 
against domestic violence, does not that provision 
make it the duty of the government to require of 
each state a republican constitution and laws? 

A republic, according to Webster, is a state in 
which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged 
in representatives elected by the people. Can they be 
said to be elected by the people if only half or two 
thirds of the loyal people are permitted to vote ? 
Would Massachusetts be a republic, if all its laboring 
men were excluded from the elective franchise, or all 
its mechanics, or all not having a liberal education, 
or any other class or standard that had no reference 
to loyalty, moral character, or such degraded igno- 
rance and imbecility as would disqualify them for exer- 
cising that trust? And if it would be anti-republican 
in Massachusetts, is it not anti-republican in North 
Carolina, or in South Carolina, or in Georgia, or in 
any other state ? 

While slavery existed, and the slaves were the goods 
and chattels of the people, they were not in any legal 
sense recognized as a part of the nation, only for the 
purpose of being counted to increase the number of 
representatives, and by it the legislative power of these 
states. But this was as unjust as it would be for the 
free states to count their oxen and horses to increase 
their representatives. But under that arrangement 
only three fifths were to be counted. 

Now, as slavery is done away with, those who were 
slaves will of course be regarded as men ; and hence- 
forth not three fifths, but the whole, must be counted ; 
thus increasing the representation in that proportion. 



MR. GILBERT ON RECONSTRUCTION. 233 

By the last census, the aggregate population of the ten 
states who seceded was four million seven hundred 
and forty-seven thousand five hundred and eighty-six 
free, and three million two hundred and forty-three thou- 
sand three hundred and thirty-two slave ; but taking 
only three fifths of the slaves and adding to the free, 
makes their representative population six million six 
hundred and ninety-three thousand five hundred and 
eighty-four. Divided by one hundred and twenty-six 
thousand eight hundred and forty-five, the ratio of ap- 
portionment among the several states, taken in the 
aggregate, it will give those ten states fifty-two repre- 
sentatives ; but on the fractional parts they were al- 
lowed one more, which make fifty-three representa- 
tives ; then counting the whole number of freedmen, 
as will now be the case, instead of three fifths, they 
will be entitled to sixty-three representatives — a gain 
of ten ; and this increased power is all to be intrusted 
to those who have been fighting us for four years, and 
have been doing all in their power to overthrow our 
government, with shot and shell, as well as by robbery 
and arson, by murdering and starving our men when 
in their hands, and by every species of barbarity that 
could be invented by devils incarnate. It is not the 
cause of the freedmen alone that I plead, but that of 
the millions who are to participate in the glory or deg- 
radation that this nation will reap, in the fruit that will 
follow their action, in the settlement of this matter. 
Mr. Sumner, in his eulogy on our late president, has 
shown Mr. Lincoln's views to have been in favor of 
the political equality of the races : let us pray that his 
mantle may fall upon his successor. 
June 2. T. Gilbert. 



234 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

Here the warrior laid aside his pen. In May, 1866, 
Charles Sumner and Solomon P. Chase wrote as fol- 
lows : — - 

Senate Chamber, 1st May, 1866. 

Dear Sir : It will not be in my power to take any 
part at the approaching anniversary of the Anti-Sla- 
very Society. My duty will keep me here. 

I trust that the society which has done so much for 
human rights will persevere until these rights are es- 
tablished throughout the country on the impregnable 
foundation of the Declaration of Independence. This 
is not the time for any relaxation of the old energies. 
Slavery is abolished only in name. The slave oli- 
garchy still lives, and insists upon ruling its former 
victims. 

Believing, as I do, that the national government 
owes protection to the freedmen, so that they shall not 
suffer in their rights, I insist that it has plenary power 
over this great question, and that it may do anything 
needful to assure these rights. In this conviction I 
shall not hesitate at all times to invoke its intervention, 
whether to establish what are called civil rights or 
that pivotal right of all — the right to take part in the 
government which they support by taxation and by 
arms. 

Accept my best wishes, and believe me, dear sir, 
faithfully yours, 

Charles Sumner. 

The President of the Anti-Slavery Society. 



JUDGE CHASE ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 235 

Letter from Judge Chase. 

Washington, May 1, 1866. 

Dear Sir : I cannot attend the annual meeting of 
the American Anti-Slavery Society, on the 8th, except 
by sincere wishes for the complete accomplishment of 
its purpose to achieve the deliverance of our country 
from the spirit as well as the fact of slavery. 

Among the most urgent duties of the hour, I count 
that of pressing upon the intelligence and the con- 
science of our countrymen the expediency as well as 
the obligation of unqualified recognition of the man- 
hood of man. 

The nation has liberated four millions of the peo- 
ple from slavery, and has made them citizens of the 
republic. 

That all freedmen are entitled to suffrage, on equal 
terms, is an axiom of free government. Neither color 
nor race can be allowed, without injustice and dam- 
age, as grounds of exception. 

If, in the first movement towards national reconstruc- 
tion, this truth had been distinctly recognized by an 
invitation to the whole loyal people of every state in 
rebellion to take part in the work of state reorganiza- 
tion, can it now be doubted that the practical relations 
of every state with the Union would have been already 
reestablished, and with the happiest consequences ? 

Nothing is more profitable than justice. Does not 
suffrage promote security, content, self-respect, better- 
ment of condition? With suffrage will there not be 
more productive labor than without? Will not suf- 
frage insure order, education, respect for law, activity 
in business, and substantial progress ? 



236 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

I have heard the difference between the production 
of the lately insurgent states with universal suffrage, 
and the production of the same states without it, esti- 
mated at one hundred millions of dollars a year. At 
this rate, the injustice of the denial of suffrage will 
cost those states, will cost the nation, five hundred 
millions of dollars in five years — enough to pay 
nearly one fifth of the national debt. 

Is it too much to expect that sensible and patriotic 
men in those states will, before long, see their true 
interest in their plain duty, and join hands with those 
who seek, not their injury or their humiliation, but 
their welfare and their honor, in equal rights for all? 

However these things may be, this, at least, seems 
clear. The men who so long contended for justice to 
the enslaved, and now contend for justice to the eman- 
cipated, will not, cannot, must not cease their efforts 
till justice prevails. 

Yours truly, 

S. P. Chase. 

Wendell Phillips, Esq. 

Surely whoever reads these utterances will see that 
the foresight of the Christian was quite as clear as 
that of the statesmen who, for many a year, have 
stood upon the headlands of political distinction. 

We have but little space left to describe Mr. G. as a 
friend, a father, and a brother in Christ. As a friend 
he was not demonstrative, but the needle was not 
truer to the pole than was he towards those he loved. 

In reading his diary my own heart has been touched 
by his expressions of love. Well do I remember the 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 237 

grasp of the hand and the tear-dimmed eye as he would 
express his gratification in listening to some sermon. 

In his friendship he was remarkably outspoken, but 
was more apt to blame than to praise. There are those 
who felt unkindly towards him because of his plain deal- 
ing. On one occasion I called his attention to the fact, 
and tried to show that no sensitive man would receive 
rebuke for mistakes unless words of good cheer were 
spoken when deserved. Well do I remember the effect 
produced. He wept, and when we bowed in prayer 
he lifted the gate, and allowed the current of love to 
flow forth unchecked until I felt swept on by its resist- 
less force. Henceforth his life seemed changed in this 
regard, and praise was never lacking in his speech. 

He was the friend of the servants of Christ. Evan- 
gelists found a home beneath his roof. He sympa- 
thized in their labors, and kept up a correspondence 
with them regarding their toils and victories. 

It is not my province to enter obtrusively within the 
charmed circle of home. As a husband he was in his 
way a model. His house was his retreat. His wife 
and children were his companions. 

He lived the life of a Christian in the midst of his 
family. The morning devotions, in which he was 
never hurried, and the evening chapter and prayer, 
will long be remembered by those who have heard 
his comprehensive and happily expressed petitions. 

Said a friend, " He is slow in speech, but eloquent 
and fluent in prayer." He was ardently attached to 
the new version of the New Testament, and read it 
with untiring zest. It was his request that it should 
be honored when his funeral discourse was preached. 



23S MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

In his last sickness he manifested the characteristics 
which distinguished his life. He was full of inven- 
tion, and never tired in constructing a bed or arranging 
a chair, so that he might find rest. There was no rest 
for the weary here. There was rest only in heaven. 

Of him Rev. E. C. Mitchell writes in language 
glowing with a love that was the result of years of 
intimate intercourse. It is but just to say that had 
Deacon Gilbert been Mr. Mitchell's own father, he 
could not have watched over him more tenderly. His 
letter is dated Alton, 111., where, as professor in the 
Theological Seminary, he has found a sphere of 
wide usefulness. 

Shtjrtleff College, October 18, 1865. 

My first acquaintance with Deacon Gilbert was 
formed in the autumn of 1850, the first year of my 
course of study at Newton. I had been elected su- 
perintendent of the Milton Sabbath School in Blossom 
Street, and had been serving in that capacity for a 
month or two, coming into the city on Saturdays. 
Having learned that I was without any convenient 
stopping-place in the city, and sometimes spent the 
Sabbath at a hotel, Deacon Gilbert, with character- 
istic liberality, sent me an invitation to make his 
house my home during my connection with the school. 
There I found a truly Christian home. The first 
thing which impressed me was the atmosphere of con- 
secration to Christ which pervaded the household. 
Everything he had was daily laid upon the altar of 
God. 

Though doing an extensive business, and enjoying a 
large income, his domestic affairs were conducted 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 239 

upon the most economical scale. The diet at his table 
was always simple and plain ; but to this any ser- 
vant of Christ was welcome, and a great multitude of 
such guests have been entertained there. Missiona- 
ries, ministers, agents of benevolent organizations, fu- 
gitives from bondage, aged, infirm, or needy ones, of 
whatever class or condition, always found a kindly 
shelter and a free table at No. 8 Beach Street. His 
family and servants were so accustomed to this state 
of things that they were never surprised at the entrance 
of strangers, nor waited to consult him before making 
them welcome. That such unquestioning hospitality 
would sometimes be imposed upon by unworthy per- 
sons is to be expected ; but he could not on that 
account forego the privilege of exercising his steward- 
ship towards the Lord's poor. Whatever their mo- 
tives or deserts, none could remain long under his roof 
without deriving positive benefit from the visit. Not 
only was his example and the whole conduct of his 
household instructive and impressive, but he had a 
quiet way of probing the views, and motives, and pur- 
poses of his visitors, and, if necessary, of earnestly in- 
culcating the true principles of religion and humanity 
in their application to practical life. And then the 
family worship — morning and evening, never omitted 
or crowded out by the greatest pressure of business, 
always deliberate and prolonged as a service in which 
he loved to linger — was so emptying of self and so 
full of God,, so manifestly near the throne and so ten- 
derly warm with heartfelt affection for Jesus, that none 
could pass through it without some melting of soul 
and some quickening of holy impulses. 



24O MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

It was my privilege to be with him on one occasion 
which applied a pretty severe test to the strength of his 
faith. I refer to the time when the first Tremont Tem- 
ple building was burned. This building was to him 
the embodiment of a great idea, the permanent estab- 
lishment of a free gospel in the city, and a perpetually 
consecrated income for benevolent purposes. For nine 
years he had watched the financial progress of the en- 
terprise, and found it to tally with his original calcula- 
tions, and to give fair promise of speedily realizing 
his most sanguine hopes. Suddenly, on a certain 
Thursday evening, immediately after the Sabbath on 
which Mr. Colver preached his farewell sermon, and 
a few hours after an audience had retired from listen- 
ing to the weekly lecture by my classmate, Charles 
R. Pattison, of Michigan, Deacon Gilbert was called 
from his bed to find the Temple in flames, and to see 
it, before daylight, converted into a mass of ruins. 
The family altar at 8 Beach Street, that morning, was 
a most interesting and instructive place. The cheer- 
ful submission to what for the moment seemed a 
completely dark and inexplicable event, accepting it 
as God's without being able to see God in it, and yet 
the assured and trustful perception by faith of God's 
wisdom, and grace, and faithfulness, manifested the 
true spirit of adoption. The day had hardly passed 
before the aspect of things was changed ; the sun 
broke through the cloud, and he and all could see 
that God had greater things in store than even his 
far-reaching sagacity had conceived. 

I shall ever regard it as a special favor of Provi- 
dence that I was permitted to be with him in his last 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 241 

hours, and to witness the patience, humility, and faith, 
which formed so fitting a conclusion to a preeminently 
earnest Christian life. I have already furnished you 
with my notes of some of his last words, taken as they 
fell from his lips. There were many other words and 
incidents, not recorded, whose memory will dwell with 
me as an impulse towards the foot of the cross. 
Truly, 

" The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
Is privileged beyond the common walks of life, 
Quite on the verge of heaven." 

It was an especially gratifying circumstance that 
he should have lived to see the virtual accomplish- 
ment of two prominent objects, to which the labors 
and prayers of his life were devoted more than to any 
others — the abolition of American slavery and the 
success of the Tremont Temple enterprise. He often 
alluded to this with thankfulness during his illness, 
and in speaking of the latter object never failed to 
couple with it expressions of affectionate confidence 
in the pastor whom God had made an instrument of 
its recent progress. I think you may congratulate 
yourself, my brother, and be grateful to God that you 
have sustained such a relationship to such a man. I 
trust that many of like faith and devotion to Christ 
may be raised up to assist you in the important duties 
devolving upon you. 

Very truly yours in the gospel, 

Edward C. Mitchell. 
11 



242 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

We have spoken freely of what Deacon Gilbert did 
not understand. It may be well to state that none 
were misunderstood more than himself. That he was 
not appreciated, all will admit. When he died, a 
mighty moral force was withdrawn from the commu- 
nity, and what had been the central support of the 
Tremont Temple enterprise fell prostrate. He be- 
lieved in the mission of the work there being per- 
formed. He saw that every blow there struck sent 
echoes into the future. Look into that recruiting 
room. Excited men listen. An excited man speaks. 
Men write down their names on paper. It is not 
much. The act was performed in a moment. Fol- 
low it. Those signatures made soldiers of men. They 
step forth from their homes and enter the camp. Mul- 
tiply that one scene by thousands, and behold the re- 
sult on the Rappahannock, on the James, in Georgia, 
among the mountains of. Tennessee, wherever our sol- 
diers swarm, and fight, and die, and you find, follow- 
ing that first act, the deafening roar of battle, the 
clash of arms, the crumbling of Confederacies, and 
the breaking up of rebellions. 

That we can understand. Go to the prairies of the 
West, to the gold mines of California, — you cannot go 
beyond the reach of the influence of Tremont Tem- 
ple, and so, necessarily, beyond the influence of this 
single man. It finds its lodgment in kindred breasts, 
and its embodiment in churches of like faith. A man 
with powers cultured and developed, whose boundless 
resources of love, and energy, and talent, and skill, are 
consecrated to the glory of Christ and the good of 
men, is a noble benefaction. His heart is the home 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 243 

and his body the servant of God. In his brain ideas 
take form, which, transplanted among men, grow up 
into institutions, laws, policies, and governments. 
The small men, of whom the race consists, could do 
little or nothing without the great men. The race 
would make no progress were it not that here and 
there, age after age, the inspiration of the Almighty, 
which giveth understanding, concentrates in some one 
man the intellectual force of multitudes of men. His 
free force, direct out of God's hand, is the lightning 
which kindles into a flame the dried fuel lying upon 
the heart-altars of men, and only waits an igniting 
spark to kindle into a flame which shall illumine the 
dark places of earth. Nations rise or fall in propor- 
tion as they have or lack men capable of building them 
up in intelligence, integrity, and justice, and of leading 
them forward to the accomplishment of magnificent 
purposes. Churches are liberal or the opposite, they 
are devoted or the opposite, they are social or the 
opposite, just in proportion as the gifts of manhood 
have been bestowed or withheld. 

The Christian manhood of Deacon Gilbert was the 
outgrowth of the work of grace in his heart. As 
flowers take coloring from the earth in which their 
roots are imbedded, so was his Christian life tinged 
and colored by the qualities of his manhood, and by 
the influences which entered into the composition of 
his character. Christ builds on men as well as builds 
in men. Hence the faults and virtues of a man's char- 
acter are chargeable to temperament, to nature, to the 
opportunities for culture, and the endowments of edu- 
cation possessed by him. Christianity has been likened 



244 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

to a seed planted in the heart. The strength of the 
root, and the height of the trunk, and the thrift of the 
tree, depend upon the soil. Rocky soil is bad — clear 
rock is worse. This fact saves Christianity from the 
shame and disgrace which have been stamped upon it 
by the sordidness, narrowness, and meanness of men. 
The tree was dwarfed and the fruit was poor because 
of the character of the soil in which it grew. Chris- 
tianity changes the currents of man's nature as to di- 
rection, and it improves his quality. This fact makes 
manhood, which is broad, deep-cultured, strong, and 
brave, of priceless value. It exalts in our estimation 
the worth of education, of filling the mind with en- 
nobling thought, and the heart with generous purposes. 
So soon as it accepts the rule of Heaven, and yields 
to Christ, its breadth, and depth, and strength give 
force and power to its new life. Had Timothy Gil- 
bert never known Christ, his brain and heart-power, 
his industry and zeal, would have made him famed. 
Having known Christ, his goodness crowned his great- 
ness, and made him the honored deacon, the generous 
Christian, and the noble man. 



2 45 



CHAPTER XIII. 

MR. GILBERT'S DEATH. NOTICES OF THE DECEASED. 

HIS FUNERAL. 

For twenty years Deacon Gilbert had been a great 
sufferer from a chronic disease of the heart. He en- 
dured far more than any one knew. The post-mortem 
examination revealed ossification of one of his lungs, 
dropsy in the chest and in the heart, and a general 
decay of the forces of life. He had talked little about 
his distressed periods, but tried to live so that his grave 
should be to him as welcome as his bed. All remem- 
ber his deathly-pale face, his difficulty in breathing, the 
look of agony that flitted across his features, and the 
cheery speech that broke from his lips. He described 
his pain to be like the incision of a knife ; yet he never 
complained, and seemed to make it his aim so to live 
that at all times he could adopt the language of Christ 
— " Not my will, but thine, O God, be done." 

He was with us the last time on the 25th of June, 
1865. It was Sabbath morning. The sermon, he was 
pleased to say, comforted his heart. The text, " Let 
love be without dissimulation," suggested a train of 
thought which his whole life had illustrated. 

His disease — dropsy of the chest — caused him in- 
tense suffering, and made him very anxious for his 
release. He had the care of Dr. William Wesselhoeft, 



246 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

a most skilful physician ; but from the first there was 
no hope of recovery. 

On Sabbath, July 9, his feet began to swell, and 
symptoms of dissolution appeared. When his atten- 
tion was called to them, he remarked, u There cannot 
be so good news as that I am dying." Then, in a 
moment, he added, " I don't know how long I shall 
suffer, but I hope I shall not be left to complain. At 
times I fear that I desire to escape suffering more than 
to glorify Jesus." 

On another occasion he said, "It is not much mat- 
ter about me ; let the rest of you apply yourselves to 
the duties of life. You cannot save sinners, but you 
can let your light shine. They cannot resist the power 
of that light." 

Then his thoughts came back to the Temple : " So 
far as I have had any thing to do with keeping that 
place open, it was for the glory of Christ. Don't let 
any one call it mine. Let them call it Christ's." Then 
he prayed, " O Jesus, if it be thy will, dispose the 
hearts of liberal men to free Tremont Temple from 
debt, so that it may become a lasting blessing to the 
destitute and the lost. The young members do not 
know much about what it has cost to rescue it from 
failure. Ask the pastor to urge upon the young men 
to prepare to meet their God. This is a very com- 
mon expression, but in the light of eternity it has ter- 
rible meaning." 

Duties had called the pastor away. He did not 
expect to see his beloved deacon again in the flesh. 
But being telegraphed, upon learning his condition he 
hastened home. After the reply came, stating that the 



DEATH-BED SCENE. 247 

pastor would be home on Wednesday evening, he 
asked to live. At six the pastor came. He found 
his senior deacon very feeble, and almost in a dying 
state. It was a joyous greeting. The old smile was 
on his face. The flash was in his eye. The kiss of 
welcome was given, and after the prayer was offered, 
taking the pastor's hand in his, he said, " Now, Lord, 
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." But a week 
of agony remained. 

Patiently and meekly he bore his yoke until the fol- 
lowing Sabbath. He longed to die on Saturda} r night. 
He was disappointed. They thought him dying, but 
he lived. Sabbath morning found him sitting up in 
his large chair by the east window, with a seat be- 
side him, waiting for his pastor. Upon his arrival the 
deacon greeted him with delight, and asked to be 
brought en rafport with the sermon and the line of 
thought. The uses of affliction were the theme. He 
listened to the statement of the doctrine, and the lesson 
drawn therefrom, joined in the prayer that followed, 
and was content. In the afternoon he felt that his 
wife and child held him back from God ; and so he 
asked them to kneel by his bedside, " to let go of him," 
and " pray for his release." The same request was 
made of others. Monday his sufferings were intense, 
yet he was sublimely patient. Tuesday the doctor 
prescribed opium. He waited until his pastor came 
and prayed ; heard him with an unclouded brain, then 
took the opiate, and, in an unconscious state, lingered 
on until Wednesday morning, when his uncaged spirit 
winged its way homeward to God. 



248 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

The scenes of that sick chamber deserve photo- 
graphing. They show how grandly a Christian may 
enter upon the last conflict, and go forth wreathed in 
victor}'. 

On one occasion, in the midst of intense suffering, 
he found great comfort in these lines, which seemed 
to give expression to his thought : — 



THE AGED BELIEVER AT THE GATE. 

I'm kneeling at the threshold, weary, faint, and sore, 
Waiting for the dawning, for the opening of the door, 
Waiting till the Master shall bid me riseltnd come 
To the glory of his presence, to the gladness of his home. 

A weary path I've travelled, 'mid darkness, storm, and strife, 
Bearing many a burden, struggling for my life ; 
But now the morn is breaking ; my toil will soon be o'er ; 
I'm kneeling at the threshold ; my hand is on the door. 

Methinks I hear the voices of the blessed as they stand, 
Singing in the sunshine of the sinless land ; 
O, would that I were with them, amid their shining throng, 
Mingling in their worship, joining in their song ! 

The friends that started with me have entered long ago ; 
One by one they left me struggling with the foe. 
Their pilgrimage was shorter, their triumph sooner won ; 
How lovingly they'll hail me when my toil is done ! 

With them the blessed angels, that know nor grief nor sin ; 
I see them by the portals, prepared to let me in. 
O Lord, I wait thy pleasure ; thy time and way are best ; 
But I'm wasted, worn, and weary — O Father, bid me rest ! 



HIS DEATH. 249 

And so he passed from the toils of earth to the rest 
of heaven — his life-work done, and well done. He 
was fitted of God to bear the yoke placed upon him. 
A different kind of man would have given his best 
thoughts to his business. He gave them to God. 

Through evil as well as through good report, Tim- 
othy Gilbert adhered to his purpose to establish in the 
heart of the city of Boston a " free place of public 
worship." That work accomplished after the toil of 
a quarter of a century, he died content. 

The city has lost a benefactor, a patriot, and a states- 
man. His eye pierced the vistas of the future ; his 
earnest words warned of danger ; his purse opened 
to every call for aid, and his pen was wielded in de- 
fence of those principles, which, after years of strife, 
have become prized above rubies, and promise to re- 
deem a continent from the thraldom of slavery. 

Upon whom shall his mantle fall ? His history has 
little of romance, and less of feats that excite wonder. 
It is distinguished by the steady tramp of the true sol- 
dier, who, from the hour of his enlistment to the hour 
of his release, kept step to the music of love, led by 
the Captain of our salvation, who on earth made it 
his meat and his drink to do the will of our Father 
who is in heaven. 

That he was missed, we have only to turn to the 
notices of the press, and the resolutions of different 
societies in which he had held a conspicuous place, to 
find abundant evidence. 

The Board of the Evangelical Baptist Benevolent 
and Missionary Society at once took action, and pro- 
11 * 



25O MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

posed to bury him at the expense of the corporation, 
which had been largely fostered bv his hand. The 
resolutions offered and passed embodied the leading 
traits of his character, and are as follow: — 

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Evangelical Bap- 
tist Benevolent and Missionary Society, convened at Social Hall, 
Tremont Temple, July 20, 1865, the following resolutions were 
adopted in reference to the death of the late Deacon Timothy 
Gilbert. 

IVhej-eas, God, in his all-wise providence, has called our late 
associate, Deacon Timothy Gilbert, from the activities of earth to 
the enjoyments of heaven, it seems proper that this Board should 
place on record some suitable memorial of his character and 
worth. 

Deacon Gilbert has been honorably identified, for more than 
forty years, with the interests of the Baptist denomination in this 
city. During this long period he has been actively identified with 
the leading public enterprises for the advancement of the cause of 
Christ. He was one of the few Christian men who laid the foun- 
dations of Xewton Theological Institution in sacrifice and prayer. 
He was also an early patron of the cause of missions to the hea- 
then, and many of our missionaries, both among the living and 
the dead, have shared his benefactions and hospitalities. He was 
emphatically a lover of good men, and engaged in all good works. 

It was while engaged in efforts for the religious instruction of 
the adult youth and strangers thronging the city, that'he con- 
ceived the idea of establishing the Tremont Temple enterprise as 
a free place of worship. His labors and sacrifices in connection 
with this enterprise are so well known that no detailed account 
of them in this connection is necessary. His unwearied efforts, 
his steady courage, and his large pecuniary offerings in this behalf, 
entitle him to the gratitude of the friends of Christ, and the suc- 
cess of his work there constitutes his best and most enduring 
monument. His labors are ended, and he has entered into his 



HIS FUNERAL. 25 1 

rest. Impressed with a sense of our great personal loss in the 
removal of our venerable friend and brother from our earthly 
counsel, we hereby tender to his afflicted family our sincere con- 
dolence in this hour of their deep domestic sorrow. 

J. W. Converse, Cyrus Carpenter, 

J. W. Merrill, Frederick Gould, 

G. W. Chipman, Solomon Parsons, Secretary, 

G. C. Goodwin, Joseph Sawyer, 

J. H. Converse, Chas. S. Kendall, 

Joseph Story, G. W. Little, 

L. B. Marsh, Jesse Tirrell. 

His funeral was attended in the Temple by a large 
concourse of citizens, conspicuous among whom were 
the piano-forte manufacturers, who assembled in a 
body, and escorted his remains beyond the city limits. 
The clergy of the Baptist denomination were present, 
with the exception of his former pastor and much 
beloved friend, Rev. Rollin H. Neale, D. D., who was 
absent from the city. The prayers of Drs. Stow and 
Eddy in the Temple were brim full of appreciative 
sympathy, and breathed a spirit of thankfulness to 
God for the gift of such a life to the church and to the 
world. 

Dr. Hague, for many years his friend, spoke as fol- 
lows : — 

" The cause of Christ and truth, of freedom and 
humanity, suffers a loss by the death of Timothy Gil- 
bert, a man of sterling excellence, a true Christian 
philanthropist. The Temple is his monument. Ev- 
ery stone and rafter are vocal with his memory. To 
buy Tremont Theatre and convert it into a church 



2^2 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

edifice for the free preaching of the gospel, as he did, 
a quarter of a century ago, was one of the bravest 
acts which signalize the history of Christian benevo- 
lence in Boston. His whole life-course, for half a 
century, w^as in keeping with that movement. He 
regarded the measure as a want of the times, and he 
staked his fortune upon its success. He made money 
in order to use it for his Master. Amid the agita- 
tions of the country, in the fluctuations of business, 
he has lost much, no doubt ; but he has saved much, 
which is well invested in an enterprise, the fruits of 
which are ' heavenly treasures,' to be garnered year 
by year. He lived and died the friend of the op- 
pressed, the champion of the right. It was a mem- 
orable day, when, in the heat of the contest about the 
fugitive slave law, he advertised in the public jour- 
nals that any needy fugitive might find a home at his 
house, No. 8 Beach Street ! Theodore Parker made 
a call there forthwith, to see the man and the place, 
and to express his surprise that there was such a house 
in Boston. The act was heroic ; but it was like him. 
Brave old soldier of the cross ! He has fought a good 
fight, he has kept the faith, and has gone to receive 
the crown of righteousness which the Lord will give 
to all that love him, and the least of the little ones 
that believe in him, faithful even unto death." 

Rev. Nathaniel Colver, D. D., had been expected, 
but was delayed by the train ; and so the pastor fol- 
lowed in a brief delineation of the deacon's character, 
and reserved for the following Sabbath a more complete 
view of that finished life. In the coffin lying beneath 



HIS FUNERAL. 253 

the high roof of the Temple, Timothy Gilbert looked 
the man. A smile lingered upon his features, and the 
glory of a Christian's hope seemed to shed the halo 
of its light upon that scene of death. Turning from 
the coffin to the crowd, the pastor said, — 

" The inquiry presses itself upon my heart as I turn 
from the contemplation of this heroic life — Is there 
no young man here, who, influenced by a similar pur- 
pose to glorify God, shall take the place left vacant by 
a Cobb, a SafFord, and a Gilbert, and whose life of 
devotion to the interests of Christ's cause shall result 
in the planting of churches, in strengthening the hands 
of the ministry, in aiding forward revivals, in pushing 
on the car of salvation to the rescue of thousands 
from a life of shame here, and a life of misery here- 
after ? 

" If so, welcome to such a field as their feet never 
trod, to such visions as their eyes never beheld. The 
world waits in its agony for the aggressive march of 
aggressive Christians. 

« Will ye play, then, will ye dally 
With your music and your wine ? 
Up ! it is Jehovah's rally ; 

God's own arm hath need of thine. 

1 On ! let all the soul within you, 
For the truth's sake, go abroad ; 
Strike ! let every nerve and sinew 
Tell for ages — tell for God.' " 

At his burial a most impressive scene was wit- 
nessed. The concourse of citizens and friends was 
large. Deacon Gilbert was buried beside his first wife 



254 MEMOIR OF TIMOTHY GILBERT. 

in Mount Auburn, in a tomb which he had prepared. 
The sun was setting as we stood beside the open 
grave. We sung his favorite hymn, " Rock of ages, 
cleft for me," and then laid aside the sacred dust. 
The prayer, offered by Rev. O. T. Walker, will never 
be forgotten. It brought tears to every eye as it por- 
trayed our loss, and thrilled every heart with joy as it 
described the Christian's gain. We saw him at rest 
with Jesus, beneath the shadow of the throne, sur- 
rounded by the early loved, and close to the heart of 
his loving Master, who had loved him first and loved 
him last, on whose strong arm the beloved disciple 
had leaned in his weakness, and in whose strength 
and grace he rested his every hope. As we turned 
from the sleeping form, and listened to the falling 
earth, w r hich told us that his decaying remains were 
being committed to their kindred element, — earth to 
earth, dust to dust, — we thought of the general resur- 
rection, through our Lord Jesus Christ, at whose com- 
ing, to judge the world, the earth and sea shall give 
up their dead ; when the corruptible bodies of those 
who sleep in him shall be made like unto his glorious 
body, according to the mighty working whereby he 
is able to subdue all things unto himself. And as we 
looked upon the bent form of a mourning wife, and 
the tear-dimmed eyes of weeping friends, we derived 
comfort from those words of Hiller, which found their 
w^ay to our hearts and gave expression to our thoughts 
as we went homeward : — 

" We wait for thee, all-glorious One ! 
"We look for thine appearing ; 



THE CLOSING SCENE. 255 

We hear thy name, and on the throne 
We see thy presence cheering. 

Faith even now 

Uplifts its brow, 
And sees the Lord descending, 
And with him bliss unending. 

" We wait for thee, through days forlorn, 
In patient self-denial ; 
We know that thou our guilt hast borne 
Upon the cross of trial. 
And well may we 
-Submit with thee 
To bear the cross and love it, 
Until thy hand remove it. 

"'We wait for thee with certain hope ; 
The time will soon be over ; 
With child-like longing we look up, 
Thy glory to discover. 
O, bliss to share 
Thy triumph there, 
When home with joy and singing, 
The Lord his saints is bringing ! " 



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